MyVoIPnews

A couple of pros on security woes

Adding to the questions and concerns about VoIP security is a nice piece over at the Netherlands-based site InfoWorld. “Hype versus reality in VoIP security” by senior editor Cara Garretson features an interview with Gartner research director Lawrence Orans and Communications Network Architects president Frank Dzubeck.

Kicking it off with a biggie, Garretson comes right out and leads with “How serious are security threats to VOIP systems?” Orans seems to be reasonably conservative about the situation stating that “The lack of high-profile attacks has lulled people into a false sense of security. However, the actual attacks are very real.”

Orans finishes his first quote with “overall I would say the threats are very real and the key thing is to understand the issue well enough so that you can separate the overhyped threats from the real threats.” Orans dubs eavesdropping as a bit of an “overhyped threat,” for example.

On the short-term future, Dzubeck predicts that “You're going to see a serious issue come up, whether […] at the server level or at massive denial-of-service attack at the desktop level in a large corporate entity within the next 24 months. The reason being that the opportunity is going to present itself, and the hole is going to exist.” So get ready for that, OK?

“Hype versus reality in VoIP security” by Cara Garretson is well worth a read and can be checked out at the InfoWorld website.

A new Gizmo gizmo

SIPphone Inc., makers of Gizmo Project, yesterday launched its web-based VoIP product Gizmo Call. Gizmo Call promises the capability to call any type of landline or mobile from any web browser, for free. Only an Adobe Flash plug-in that works with a web browser is required.

Users receive five minutes of calling per day and can double that if registering at Gizmo with an email address. All users can make unlimited free calls to anyone using Gizmo Project, Windows Live Messenger, GoogleTalk, or any SIP device. Additional minutes are available for purchase in $10 units.

Gizmo Call is available immediately for Windows and Macintosh operating systems, and a Linux OS supported version is expected to be released within 30 days. Gizmo Call works with Internet Explorer, Opera, Firefox, and Safari browsers and requires Adobe Flash 9.

This is the biggest announcement from Gizmo Call since a key win in December had Nokia officials announcing that Nokia N80 Internet Edition users could use SIPphone's Gizmo Voice over IP services. The Nokia N80 Internet Edition is promised to be optimized for SIP-based internet calls, from Nokia and SIPphone efforts to design a way to configure and make calls using Gizmo VoIP directly from a multimedia computer.

Founded in 2003, SIPphone boasts a flagship product – Gizmo Project – that now has customers in more than 170 countries and has been downloaded nearly 2 million times.

NEC SPITophobic; Cisco blasé

Now this is an interesting turn of events. In pumping up their new VoIP Seal product, the folks at NEC Corporation were happy to pass on a little fud through the UK edition of ZDNet, claiming that “Telephony spam could soon comprise over half of all phone calls … potentially causing worker productivity to plummet.”

Today, Cisco skeptically shot back via a one-paragraph story on Network World. Under the headline, “Cisco: VoIP spam is no big deal” runs the lead “Cisco is not worried about the potential of VoIP spam.” And upon being asked if Cisco would be making any SPIT (excellent acronym, that) filters, one Cisco bigwig commented that “We have nothing along the lines of what NEC has developed.”

Is NEC telling a fish story or is Cisco woefully unprepared for the scary SPIT of 2007? To be continued…

911 for 94 percent

Vonage America Inc., subsidiary of VoIP powerhouse Vonage Holdings Corp., is keeping the press (and probably that sometimes pesky FCC) informed about their continuing mandated mission to cover all its subscriber lines with the Vonage Enhanced 911 service.

Today, representatives of the firm announced a coverage rate of 94 percent and the total number of lines fitted for Enhanced 911 at over 2 million.

Vonage’s nomadic Enhanced 911 solution promises customers the ability to reach a 911 center through the dedicated 911 network infrastructure, automatically routing calls to the appropriate 911 center with the caller’s registered street address and telephone number appearing on the dispatcher’s screen.

Vonage PR also reported that since December 15, the company has equipped some fifty locally-run emergency call centers across the U.S. with Enhanced 911, bringing the total number of calling centers with emergency 911 service to over 6,600.

Nice little mousey

Beyondtel Co. Ltd today announced the launch of the Optical USB Skype Mouse (also known as mild-mannered VM-01L), the latest USB VoIP phone with optical mouse and handsfree functions.

Beyondtel’s mouse supports Skype, VoIPBuster, VoIPStunt, VoIPCheap, FreeCall, VoIPDiscount, internet calls, Web Call Direct, poivY and NetApple.

The VM-01L sports a 128x64-pixel backlit LCD, a 800dpi optical sensor, and a hi-fi speaker. (They’re proud of that particular feature on the website.) Dimensions of the VM-01L are 99 x 50 x 29mm.

How do you say, “Voice over Internet Protocol” in Hungarian?

GTS Central Europe subsidiary GTS Hungary, the largest alternative telcom in Central Eastern Europe announced today their selection of Thomson’s Cirpack line. Datanet is the third GTS interest to go with Cirpack, following GTS Telecom in Romania and GTS Nextra in Slovakia’s selections in 2004 and 2005.

GTS Central Europe provides integrated telecoms solutions with its own fibre-based network in Central Europe. GTS Datanet plans to launch a range of double play and IP Centrex packages for operators and business clients. The current business plan calls for Datanet to round up 20,000 new customers one year. To fulfill these requirements, GTS Datanet sought a carrier grade platform capable of offering full class 5 voice features.

Hungary has recently been touted as a market to watch in the CEE region, with a 60 percent increase registered by Hungarian telecom regulator the National Communications Authority in 2005 alone.

GTS Central Europe is an infrastructure-based provider of integrated telecoms product for the area between Frankfurt and Istanbul. GTS CE provides fixed voice, data, IP, MPLS and broadband services. GTS CE’s primary countries of operation include the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, with network extensions and local partnerships in Ukraine, the Baltic states, Bulgaria, Russia, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Moldova and Turkey.

More “Cops” in Bangladesh

Cue music: “Bad boys, bad boys…”

This just in from Bangladesh. The New Nation, “Bangladesh’s Independent News Source,” is today reporting that the law-enforcement bunch known as the Rapid Action Battalion raided two more illegal VoIP providers, this time in the town of Tongi.

About 25 million taka (approximately $360,000) worth of VoIP equipment was rounded up by the RAB in these, the 14th and 15th busts since the government declared war on illegal VoIP providers back in late December. Reportedly, one of the contraband VoIP providers was being helped along in his business by a brother living in Kuwait. No word on whether the infamous Halal “Genghis” Khan or any of his “gang” were involved in the illegal operation, which is said to have been operating in a shantytown.

A loving promotion

Happy Valentine’s Day!

All right, we here at My VoIP News know it’s early to be well-wishing for the latest in the holiday run (Hey, no one wished me a Happy Super Bowl Sunday!), but Fusion Telecommunications International Inc. has announced a Valentine’s Day promotion to promote its Efonica services.

Together with the Daily News in New York, Fusion will hold a Valentine's Day sweepstakes, with 1,000 winners selected to make a free Efonica call to “a family member or loved one” (wait a minute; there are no families on Valentine’s Day) anywhere in the world using Efonica's Mobilink service. The call may be made from cell phone or landline. A bit of a heartbreaker is the five-minute leash put on the calls; it’s enough time in which to propose, but not enough to be wishy-washy about it, so quick your stammering and pop the question already!

The nine day promotion kicks off today. The 1,000 Daily News readers are to be selected at random from all sweepstakes entrants. According to the Fusion strategy, “The international demographics represented by the nearly 800,000 readers of the Daily News closely mirror Fusion's target market of consumers who communicate frequently with friends and family around the world.”

The Efonica Mobilink service was launched in December.

Mobilink is currently available to US subscribers and, reports AME Info, “the ultimate Middle East business resource,” “will soon be introduced in Middle Eastern countries where Efonica's services are accessible.”

Fusion provides Efonica VoIP, internet access, and other internet services in emerging markets in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Fusion currently provides services to consumers, corporations, international carriers, government entities, and internet service providers in over 100 countries.

Star2Star 2

For a company called Star2Star Communications, a version 2.0 seems especially appropriate. Indeed, today saw the release of StarSystem, a business-grade VoIP product designed for the small- to mid-sized business market. Star2Star also announced that its intention was to make the market move from regional to national.

Star2Star has a bit of a unique position with this product offering, as the company acts as PBX manufacturer and the VoIP service provider; “Star2Star's end-to-end architecture,” concludes Star2Star PR, “is a ground breaking VoIP technological answer to this dilemma.” Star2Star also lays claim to status as “the only provider of a completely integrated End-to-End Business Grade Internet Phone Solution.”

VoIP cops busy in Bangladesh

Over in Bangladesh, it was a wild and wacky week in VoIP, five action-packed workdays that came to more resemble an episode of “Cops” than your typical VoIP news of product releases and partnerships. Following runs a breakdown of police crackdowns on illegal VoIP operations that regional industry news.

Tuesday, January 23. Bangladesh government officials issued a strong warning against clandestine overseas phoning through Voice over Internet Protocol. An official statement tersely announced that “Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board is the lone legitimate organization approved by the government for call termination and call origination abroad.”

Along with this none-too-friendly reminder, the government warning also stated that “illegal call termination and call origination contravenes the law and is a punishable offense.” From December 26 to this date, Bangladesh law enforcement had seized equipment from and closed some seven unauthorized VoIP suppliers; the new declaration of the 23rd would inspire another round of shutdowns.

Wednesday, January 24. The special law enforcement team known as the “Rapid Action Battalion” reported raids on five phone service centers suspected of plying the illegal VoIP trade in the cities of Mirpur and Chittagong. In not quite “Cops” fashion, reportage from The Daily Star online edition noted that the RAB “could not arrest anyone during the raids as the corrupt businessmen fled away sensing the presence of the elite force members.”

According to The Star, the raids in Chittagong “were conducted after a tip-off that some people are operating VoIP equipment to illegally divert calls abroad by call origination and termination using BTTB phones and mobile SIM (subscriber identity module) cards in the areas.”

In the most recent raids, the RAB confiscated a “huge quantity of receivers, cables, circuits and integrated circuits,” with a total value of “several hundred crore taka” according to RAB figures. One crore taka, or ten million taka, is worth approximately $145,000.

Thursday, January 25. Thursday night, a RAB intelligence unit raided the third floor of a four-storey building at Badda in the capital to snag VoIP equipment worth over 3 crore taka (approximately $434,000). Again, the “bad boys” evaded police, but the RAB are now seeking Mohammad Hasan and Azharul Islam Manik, accused of running “the unscrupulous telephone business.”

Writers at the Daily Star, no doubt pleased as punch to have landed such a fruitful continuing new story, quoted a member of the RAB team involved in the operation as totalling seized equipment at “18 pieces of quantum gateway equipment, 210 tellular devices, 10 UPS and two generators.”

Friday, January 26. The RAB were at it again, closing another illegal VoIP outlet in Jigatala. Raiding the home of a private individual, reported in the media as one Rafiqual Islam alias Babul, the wee-hours bust was also the result of a tip-off. The arrest resulted in confiscation of some 15 lakh taka (approximately $21,700) in VoIP equipment: Reportedly, 65 tellular devices, 62 mobile SIM cards, one computer monitor, its CPU and 65 adapters were seized.

The figure at least one local source calls the “ring leader” in Bangladesh's pirate VoIP industry is a guy named Helal Khan, a real Genghis for the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board.

Khan, who has his own website advertising his cinematic career featuring starring roles in some thirteen films since 1999 (including the big deal Hason Raja), also serves as the International Affairs Secretary of the cultural wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. The BNP is currently the majority-ruling party in the country.

Apparently, in his spare time, Khan runs operations involving illegal VoIP operations, operations which have deprived BTTB of some “500 million Taka [approximately $7.23 million] in past five years of BNP rule simply by operating illegal calling card business from his Bangla Motor station. According to sources, Khan is also continuing to operate at least five more illegal telephone exchanges … through members of his gang. One Swajan Chowdhury is the main aide of Helal in these illegal activities, who manages to escape the law enforcing agencies...”

According to the Bangladesh Board of Revenue, Khan is under investigation for tax evasion. Khan’s business Central Music and Video Limited is charged with having sold CDs and cassettes for “several” years while not paying VAT taxes in the amount of 180 million taka (approximately $2.46 million) or so, further cementing his reputation as Bangladesh’s high-tech Al Capone.

Khan “and his men” have managed to avoid the recent police activity vis-à-vis VoIP, having “secretly removed all equipment and property of the company from its Purana Paltan premises and even recently removed the sign board of the company while plac[ing] the sign board of Hask Films, which is another company of Helal Khan.”

And as the “Weekly Blitz” reports, Khan has another resource at his disposal even more powerful than movie-star popularity, political influence and a bunch of tax-free cash: It seems Khan has “managed to become a US citizen, and it is believed that, he might leave the country at any time to avoid legal consequences.”

Meanwhile, as a backdrop to the illegal VoIP activity in Bangladesh, a slightly more above-board deal was reported last Monday.

Representatives of Global Coal Management plc on that day announced its signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to make a further strategic investment in Bangladesh by subscribing for 26.5 percent of the equity in Peoples Telecom and Information Services Ltd, an investment of $5 million.

Peoples hopes that the investment will bring “significant benefits to the development of the Phulbari Coal Project by ensuring that modern and extensive telecommunication networks and infrastructure are in place across all areas – mine site, transport corridor, port operations, etc.”

Peoples Telecom and Information Services Ltd is an established Bangladesh fixed line telephone operator since 1989 and is currently undertaking a rapid expansion plan, having recently rounded up $15 million from existing shareholders, including company founder Tim Nurun Nabi.

Peoples has also recently gained governmental approval to invest up to $379 million in providing fixed line and/or wireless telephone connections in Bangladesh. Currently, Peoples Telecom has 120 operational exchanges in Bangladesh and currently employs over 280.

Peoples recently completed a 17-kilometer fibre optic ring around capital Dhaka City and has full interconnect agreements with the country’s major cellular operators and fixed line operators, including BTTB.

Now, the investment of $5 million surely has nothing to do with a new hardline stance reiterated by the government the following day, right?

Nah…