MyVoIPnews

Tollgrade ahead

Representatives of Tollgrade Communications, Inc. announced today that the firm had extended its existing software maintenance agreement with an unnamed large domestic telecom provider and expects to extend another software maintenance agreement with a second large domestic telecom provider during the first quarter of 2007.

In its cable network assurance product line, Tollgrade was also awarded a new project with a mid-sized multiple system cable operator for its DOCSIS-based software and hardware solutions, which will be sold directly to the end-customer. With deployment expected to commence in the first quarter of 2007, this project will reportedly represent the first multiple system implementation of Tollgrade's Voice over Internet Protocol broadband testing solution.

Cheswick, Penna.-headquartered Tollgrade Communications Inc. is a provider of network service assurance products and services for centralized test systems, offering services in design, engineering, marketing and support of centralized test systems, test access and status monitoring products. Tollgrade was founded in 1989 and today boasts over 200 million embedded access lines.

Esna, up in the Skype

Esna Technologies Inc. has announced it has added Skype support to version 7.5 of its Telephony Office-LinX unified communication platform. Telephony Office-LinX will integrate Microsoft’s Outlook Calendar with Skype’s desktop VoIP application.

Users of the Telephony Office-LinX platform will have their live Skype status tied into their Microsoft Exchange schedule, enabling other Skype users to see if they are available or not, on their office telephone, or off the network.

The release of Telephony Office-LinX 7.5 is expected in for the first quarter of 2007. Esnatech will be running beta trials with partners in January.

Founded in 1989, communications solutions distributor Esnatech now distributes product through OEM and VAR partners in 28 countries.

The VoIP top 12

The excellent list-crafting folks over at ISP Planet were kind enough to update their top VoIP service providers list, adjusting figures for the end of the third quarter of 2006.

All results are based on reportage from the companies themselves. To their credit, most all the subscriber figures have been updated to the at least the end of third quarter 2006. The notable exception here is Skype, which stubbornly persists in not publicly updating their subscriber figures and is still stuck at the 1.8 million figure first reported in July 2005; Skype has subsequently lost the no. 1 spot on the ISP Planet list.

According to the “TeleGeography Report and Database” released in December of this year, TeleGeography had Skype users at a whopping 8 million. Nevertheless, ISP Planet is sticking with 1.8 million for Skype. Should someone tell the Skype brain trust they’ve dropped to no. 2?

The list looks something like the following. The first number listed is ISP Planet’s third-quarter ranking, with second-quarter ranking in parentheses.

1. (T2) Vonage. As of September 2006, Vonage listed 2 million customers, quite a mark considering the product is only available in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.

2. (1) Skype.

3. (4) Time Warner Digital Phone moved up a spot, adding 49,000 subscribers to bring its customer base up to approximately 1.649 million as of November 1. Time Warner carries an asterisk, however, as Time Warner provides digital phones rather than what ISP Planet calls “true VoIP.”

4. (7) Comcast Digital Phone jumped up the charts, with ISP Planet acknowledging 1.348 million customers as of the end of October, as opposed to just 730,000 reported on the last list.

5. (5) Optimum Voice, a product of Cable Vision, surpassed the one million mark and are now just over 1.1. million in customer base.

6. (8) Charter, providers of cable VoIP, recorded 340,000 subscribers this quarter, a nice jump from its previously-recorded 258,000.

7. (10) Cracking the ISP Planet top ten for the first time last quarter, Sun Rocket moved up the chart three places despite no reportage of increase in its customer base of 128,000.

8. (11) Insight Communications.

9. (12) Mediacom

10. (14) GCI added 1,000 subscribers to its rolls, giving the Alaska-only VoIP firm some 28,000 clients.

11. (15) Trailing GCI in eleventh spot are fellow Alaskans CBeyond, with 25,000 customers.

As for firms which dropped off the list, ISP Planet does admit that “data was unavailable for many VoIP service providers,” telling us further that former no. 2 Cox Communications “has gone private and no longer issues public data” (on the last chart, Cox had 1.8 million subscribers listed) and that Packet 8, providers of formerly no. 9-ranked 8x8, “now considers itself an equipment company rather than a VoIP provider and did not report subscriber numbers.”

The chart, done up by managing editor Alex Goldman and containing some nice homepage linkage, can be found at ISP-Planet.com.

ISP-Planet.com was founded in April 1999 and is designed to “address the concerns of internet service providers.”

Casema reaches milestone

Dutch cable company Casema has announced an impressive achievement in the signing its 200,000th digital telephony subscriber after just about eighteen months of offering VoIP services, equaling a growth rate of 11,000 customers per month. This is quite good news for the small-market company which saw a five-month delay in its proper full-scale roll-out.

For 2007, Casema forecasts its VoIP customer base to see a 60 percent increase to reach 320,000. The company launched the VoIP service in June 2005 but had to delay full scale roll-out until October due to problems with its customer information system.

Covad! United!

Representatives of Covad Communications Group have announced their firm’s teaming with United Online, Inc., a provider of consumer internet and media services, most notably Classmates.com.

United Online will be expanding its NetZero DSL broadband internet service offering using the Covad network. Current plans call for United Online to launch this expansion around March 2007.

According to reportage from TMCNet, United Online estimates have NetZero DSL services reaching approximately 30 to 35 percent of United Online’s current ISP customer base following the addition of NetZero DSL services in Covad’s service area.

Covad Communications Group offers DSL, Voice Over IP, T1, web hosting, managed security, IP and dial-up, wireless broadband, and bundled voice and data services. Covad bills itself as the first company to commercially deploy DSL in the United States, and the firm’s network now spans more than 57 million homes and businesses in 44 states; Covad broadband services are currently available across the nation in 235 metropolitan statistical areas representing over 50 percent of all US homes and businesses. Covad is headquartered in San Jose, Calif.

It’s a VoIP phone! It’s a mouse! It’s chic!

Admittedly, My VoIP News has seen many a product announcement, but the usage of “chic” to describe a VoIP mouse is a bit of a stopper indeed.

Nevertheless, here it is: KYE Systems PR has released the Genius Navigator 380, “a remarkable chic mouse exhibiting an extraordinary integration of mouse and internet phone functions.”

Well.

Speaking more specifically, Genius VOIP Mouse software can support up Skype, MSN, Yahoo, GoogleTalk, QQ and AIM simultaneously. Seven buttons reside in Navigator 380 for the phone functions.

The Navigator is also touted as a neat device for the traveler. LEDs blink to inidicate an instant messenger message is coming through, and the odd-looking thing opens in the fashion of clamshell mobile phones.

Genius Navigator 380 is available through various outlets for approximately $42.

Taipei, Taiwan-based KYE Systems launched the Genius line in 1985. KYE has three manufacturing units in China.

Big book of profiles

New Paradigm Resources Group has released their Spartanly-titled “VoIP Report, 3rd Edition.” Reads the executive summary in part: “VoIP has been proven as a disruptive technology (sic) and providers are emerging using multiple business models to promote variations of the service…”

The VoIP Report is a collection of profiles of VoIP carriers and vendors – 113 in all – as those which “explore the IP technology revolution in every segment of the VoIP industry.” The VoIP report notes the increase in providers and number of segments serving the industry; New Paradigm’s own industry segmentation breaks the greater market into ILECs, CLECs, cable telephony, IM telephony, PC-to-PC telephony, pure-play VoIP and wholesale providers.

Report authors attribute the huge recent growth in VoIP providers to a lack of FCC regulation on voice traffic online and low overhead in providing service.

Though, further reads the report, “the number of VoIP subscribers appears to continue to grow,” report authors admit that “it is difficult to ascertain the number of unique VoIP users. With service provided through multiple delivery methods, a user may rely on VoIP from multiple sources.”

To the numbers, then! NPRG estimates that there are approximately 6 million VoIP users in the United States and forecasts further growth to the tune of 9 million users by the end of 2006 and 24 million by the end of 2008.

Carriers and vendors profiled in “VoIP Report 3rd edition” represent a virtual “Who’s Who” of VoIP and are listed below. If you’re considering an offer from a company not appearing here, further research is probably required.

Carriers profiled are 8x8, Inc.; AICO; Airband Communications; America Online; AT&T, Inc.; BellSouth Corporation; Broadline; Broadview Networks; BroadVoice; Broadvox; Cablevision Systems Corp.; Cavalier Telephone; Cbeyond Communications; Charter Communications; Cinergy Communications; Cinergy Communications; Comcast Corp.; Covad Communications; Cox Communications; deltathree, Inc.; DSL.net Inc.; EarthLink; Global Crossing Ltd.; Google; I2 Telecom; i3 Networks; ICG Communications; Level 3 Communications; LightEdge Solutions; M5 Networks, Inc.; McLeodUSA, Inc.; Microsoft; Mpower Communications; Net2Phone, Inc.; New Global Telecom; NewMarket Tehcnology; NuVox Communications; Onvoy, Inc.; Pac-West Telecomm; PointOne; Primus Telecommunications; Qwest Communications; Speakeasy, Inc.; Sprint Nextel; SunRocket; TelCove; Time Warner cable; Time Warner Telecom; Trinsic; Verizon; VoIP Inc.; Vonage; Vox; Yahoo!; and, of course, Skype.

Vendors profiled are Acceris; Adax; Airspan Networks; Alcatel; Ascendent Systems; Atreus; Avaya; Azulstar; Be Here Corporation (oooh, great name there); Borderware; Broadsoft; Catapult Communications; Cisco-Linksys; Continuous Computing; CopperCom; CustomCall; Digium; Ditech; Electronic Systems Tech.; Empirix; Ensim; Excel Switching; Foundry; Global Touch; InfiniRoute Networks; Intel; Kayote; Lucent Technologies; MetaSwitch; Motorola; MultiTech Systems; Network Equipment Technologies; NMS Communications; Nuera; Performance Technologies; Popular Technologies; QualMax; Quintum; Quovia; Sangoma; Siemens; SMC Network; Soyo Group; Stealth; Sylantro; Tekelec; Telarix; Telchemy; Terayon Communications Systems; Ulticom; Verso Technologies; Vertical Communication; VoiceTelligence; Zhone; and Zoom Technologies.

Plantronics' Christmas gift

On Christmas Day, Plantronics Inc. officially announced the expansion of its Voice over Internet Protocol headset line with the new Plantronics SupraPlus Wideband headset and Vista M22 amplifier with Clearline audio technology.

The Plantronics brain trust reportedly designed the SupraPlus Wideband headset to support new wideband IP phones from industry leaders such as Avaya, Cisco, Nortel, Siemens and ShoreTel.

The Plantronics Vista M22 promises advanced audio performance, reliability and flexibility in supporting the latest wideband VoIP technology while maintaining backwards compatibility with narrowband phones. Other features touted in the Plantronics Vista M22 are phone line noise reduction, call volume equalizer, greater protection from loud noises, and greater echo management.

The SupraPlus Wideband is available in “multiple wearing styles.” The monaural headset has a manufacturer’s suggested price of $107, and the binaural headset has a manufacturer’s suggested price of $132. The Vista M22 has a manufacturer’s suggested price of $120. All are available through Plantronics authorized resellers and www.Plantronics.com.

Plantronics PR can make a claim that no other company’s can: In 1969, a Plantronics headset carried the historic first words from the moon: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Plantronics has since been used in air traffic control, 911 dispatch, and the New York Stock Exchange.

In the Zhone

Representatives of Zhone Technologies, Inc. announced today that Nortel has completed compatibility testing of Zhone’s MALC Access Concentrator / SLMS with Nortel’s Communication Server 2000 softswitch. Zhone Technologies is a global provider of communications equipment and of VoIP, IPTV, and Ethernet over copper and fiber access lines.

As a result of the successful testing, Zhone’s MALC product is designated a Nortel Compatible Product and was awarded a Nortel Certificate of Compatibility.

As a broadband loop carrier, Zhone’s MALC combines advanced data, and video services with integrated VoIP access gateway functionality, converting voice traffic on business and residential POTS interfaces to SIP, MGCP and H.248 VoIP protocols. The interoperable solution of the Zhone MALC and the Nortel Communication Server 2000 softswitch seeks to assist service providers in deploying complete carrier-class voice networks supporting both legacy and IP-based services from a single voice architecture.

The certificate of compatibility can be seen at the Nortel developer program website.

Zhone Technologies, Inc. was founded by senior executives of Ascend Communications and began operations in September 1999. With corporate headquarters in Oakland, California, Zhone operates development centers across North America.

Damaka on video

Damaka, a communication and collaboration software company, has announced its launch of video mail, which enables users to leave video messages for damaka users and any contacts using a regular webcam. Damaka offers its white-label, SIP-based, peer-to-peer platform to “companies interested in jumping into the triple play solution with minimal infrastructure investment.”

Videomail is the newest addition to damaka’s existing set of features, which includes DialOut, video conferencing, desktop sharing, and FastFile transfer, and the first since IPTV. Damaka’s IPTV provides users free access to BBC News, CNN-IBN, HSN and other channels. The company also recently released best-in-class peer-to-peer multi-party video conferencing as the cornerstone of its video offering.