Differentiation key for VoIP providers

VoIP providers should differentiate their offerings to maximise market share in the current economic climate, it has been claimed.

Research carried out by IT industry analyst Frost and Sullivan found that demand for the communications solution remains healthy despite the current difficult economic climate.

Studies by the group found that the market saw revenues of over $522.4 million (£322 million) in 2008 and predicted that this will reach $657.3 million in 2012.

The company went on to say that semiconductor manufacturers should provide solutions with value-added features at attractive price points, adding that providers are responding with new system-on-a-chip solutions that incorporate a range of capabilities while lowering design costs.

Research analyst at the company Jayalakshmi Janakiraman commented: "The long-term cost savings associated with the adoption of VoIP is sustaining the demand for semiconductors in these applications."

Earlier this week, TMCNet reported that VoIP services offer cost savings to firms.
http://www.ihotdesk.com

NGT Provides VoIP to American Broadband

New Global Telecom, a U.S. based provider of wholesale hosted IP Telephony Communication solutions will reportedly provide VoIP services and unified communications to American Broadband customers on a private label basis.


ABi provides organizations with a broadband and Ethernet aggregation solution that allows them to engineer large scale, high speed, flexible networks, Thomas K. Grundman, ABi's CEO, said. These customers want to more fully utilize these networks with complementary applications, and prefer a single source for network design, install, billing and around the clock customer support and service.

Grundman said that NGT's VoIP solution is the first of many new services and applications requested by their clients. He said this deal will aid ABi to effectively bundle transport and these hosted communication solutions. The resulting combination from this effort will offer significant value to both existing and future clients.

John Guillaume, senior vice president of sales and marketing at NGT said this deal will benefit ABi. The company can use NGT's managed, secure VoIP services and unified communications to deliver large, multi-location businesses on-net calling or four-digit dialing, unified voicemail and streamlined call routing from site to site.

More and more companies now want to lower their networking and telecommunications expenses, and Guillaume observed that one-stop shopping at ABi will help ensure their communications are right-sized and optimized from the onset.

New Global Telecom (News - Alert) was in news earlier this year when it certified the Cisco SPA500 series of IP phones for use in conjunction with NGT’s fully managed VoIP services. Both companies are jointly marketing small business VoIP services and equipment to partners and end user businesses.

The company also signed a deal under which NationsLine is private labeling NGT VoIP services and unified communications to its customers.

Anuradha Shukla is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anuradha’s article, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Amy Tierney
http://hosted-voip.tmcnet.com/

Nortel carrier VoIP bids expected next week

Telecom vendors are expected to bid on Nortel's Carrier VoIP and Application Solutions business next week, according to an analyst's report.

A court-approved decision on the winning bid is expected in January, according the bulletin issued this week by Catharine Trebnick of Avian Securities. Potential bidders are GENBAND, NEC, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) and Sonus, or a consortium organized to divide up the assets, Trebnick states in her report.
The Compelling Case for Video Telephony in UC: Download now

"Our dark horse bidder is NEC. Our unlikely candidates are Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Huawei," Trebnick states in the report.

A bid has been expected for months. Nortel did not confirm or comment on the Avian report.

NSN could digest the Nortel unit more easily than either Sonus or GENBAND, Trebnick notes.

"NSN has stated aspirations to increase their presence in North America," she states. "We believe the potential revenue and cost synergies for NSN would far exceed those that could be achieved by [Sonus] and/or GENBAND. NSN has a significantly larger sales organizations, international presence and product breadth."

The Nortel assets are attractive because AT&T has more than 1,500 Nortel DMS switches, representing about 700,000 T-1 Class 4 lines in operation, Trebnick notes. Over 65% of North American voice traffic runs over Nortel and/or Alcatel-Lucent switches, she states.

Carrier VoIP and Applications Solutions, which employs 2,500 people, is a $800 million business, representing about 10% of Nortel's annual revenue. Nortel is selling itself off in pieces after a bankruptcy-induced restructuring plan failed.

To date, Nortel has sold off its enterprise, Metro Ethernet, application switch and wireless businesses, and shuttered its WiMAX operations.

Indeed, Avaya this week completed its purchase of Nortel's Enterprise Solutions Group. Approximately 6,000 Nortel employees have joined Avaya, including 25 top managers. Joel Hackney, previously president of the Nortel unit, has joined the Avaya Executive Committee as senior vice president and president, Avaya Government Solutions and Data.

http://www.networkworld.com

Vox Communications' International Mobile VoIP Plans Challenge the Industry

White Plains, NY-based Vox Communications, which offers mobile, residential, and business VoIP services, yesterday announced the availability—to its unlimited GSM mobile plan customers—of super low-cost international calling, further ratcheting up competition in the already competitive market for overseas long distance.

Vox's unlimited voice-and-data plan, priced at $69.95 per month (with no annual contract), is tailored to the unlocked HTC Touch Pro II smartphone that the company also sells. Now, those with moderately heavy to very heavy international calling needs can opt for a 500 minute package, priced at an additional $15 per month, or a 1,000 minute package, at the even more economical rate of $25 per month (or $0.025 per minute). They cover 34 common overseas calling destinations.

VoIP calling over mobile links is no longer novel, proprietary VoIP-over-mobile providers, like Truphone and Jajah proliferating, and with VoIP applications for the BlackBerry, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android phone, Symbian-based phones, and high-end Nokia smartphones springing up weekly, it seems, Vox's plan—and technology—is the only one we're aware of that is being offered by a mobile carrier. And it is certainly one of the most aggressively priced, if not the most aggressively priced.

Vox is able to offer this pricing in large part because of its own SIP-based national network with availability in over 6,300 rate centers—the foundation for its main line of business, which is wholesale VoIP transport, private brand VoIP service provision for cable operators, WiMAX providers, CLECs and ISPa, and SIP origination and termination services for other carriers. (See our earlier coverage.)

"We know of no other cell phone carrier that can offer international calling rates this low," said VoX Communications Corp. CEO, Paul Riss, in a statement.

Riss also waxed enthusiastic about the company's international calling quality—and its customers satisfaction. "One international traveler just came back from Panama and is still raving about the high quality and low cost of our phone service," he said. "His phone is a U.S.-based mobile phone with a Florida phone number, but since our rates to Panama are only 5 cents a minute, he was able to make abundant calls to people in Panama when he was in Florida and when he was in Panama."

Since the advent of Skype—which is now getting a firm footing in the enterprise international calling market—and all of the low-cost alternatives it has spawned, directly or indirectly, it's hard to believe that anyone would make international calls at the standard rates charged by major mobile carriers. But they do.
http://www.voipplanet.com/

LightEdge Deploys Acme Packet for Delivering Hosted Unified Communications Service to SMBs

-Acme Packet(R) (NASDAQ: APKT), the leader in session border control solutions, today announced that LightEdge, the leading hosted services provider dedicated to the communications and IT needs of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), has deployed Acme Packet's Net-Net(R) session border controller (SBC) to deliver its recently-announced Hosted Unified Communications, a new service based on BroadSoft's BroadWorks(R) Voice-over-IP (VoIP) application platform as well as Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration. LightEdge deployed Acme Packet SBCs to simplify new customer activation and enable "click-to-call" functionality in tandem with the BroadSoft platform.

The LightEdge service provides one platform for voice, email, instant messaging and calendaring, allowing a user to collaborate in real-time within the office and outside the office. Hosted Unified Communications is part of the LightEdge Connected Office suite of products, and helps SMBs more easily and cost-effectively obtain unified communications (UC) as a hosted service. LightEdge Connected Office suite includes Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 for hosted email, BroadSoft BroadWorks Hosted PBX VoIP, Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 for instant messaging and presence, Microsoft Live Meeting and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. The solution can be purchased incrementally or as an entire integrated bundle to support a business' e-mail, calendaring, conferencing, voice and collaboration needs.

Acme Packet's Net-Net SBC was deployed in the LightEdge network to help simplify the process of activating new customers. The SBC's ability to enable seamless communications for LightEdge customers by mediating and controlling signaling flows between SIP phones and LightEdge service elements reduces interoperability issues, leading to shorter service activation cycles with fewer trouble tickets and higher customer satisfaction.

The Net-Net SBC also works in tandem with the BroadSoft platform to enable "click-to-call," a feature of the LightEdge service that provides end users with the ability to initiate or receive VoIP calls simply by clicking a button on their desktop. Because the Acme Packet SBC can effectively manipulate SIP messages, LightEdge can offer click-to-call or other features that boost productivity and improve the business communications experience for LightEdge customers.

"Our customers expect strong ease of use from our Hosted Unified Communications service," said Jeff Springborn, president and COO of LightEdge. "Acme Packet's SBCs enable that while giving us the ability to offer a very high-quality integrated user experience."

"The integration of hosted voice with existing desktop applications offers a huge opportunity for increasing overall business efficiency," said Dino Di Palma, vice president of sales and business development at Acme Packet. "LightEdge's use of our SBCs further validates the business benefits of supplementing basic VoIP and UC functions with advanced session border control."

About LightEdge

LightEdge is the only hosted services partner fully dedicated to the providing a full breadth of communications and IT services to small and medium-sized businesses looking for a better way to focus on their core business, not the technology that supports it. For more information, visit www.lightedge.com.

About Acme Packet

Acme Packet, Inc. (NASDAQ: APKT), the leader in session border control solutions, enables the delivery of trusted, first-class interactive communications--voice, video and multimedia sessions--and data services across IP network borders. Our Net-Net family of session border controllers, multiservice security gateways and session routing proxies supports multiple applications in service provider, large enterprise and contact center networks--from VoIP trunking to hosted enterprise and residential services to fixed-mobile convergence. They satisfy critical security, service assurance and regulatory requirements in wireline, cable and wireless networks; and support multiple protocols--SIP, H.323, MGCP/NCS and H.248--and multiple border points--interconnect, access and data center. Our products have been selected by more than 635 customers in 92 countries, including 29 of the top 30, and 89 of the top 100 service providers in the world. For more information, contact us at +1 781.328.4400, or visit www.acmepacket.com.

Acme Packet Safe Harbor Statement

Statements contained herein that are not historical fact may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements may relate, among other things, to our position in the session border control market, our expected financial and operating results, our ability to establish and maintain intellectual property rights, our ability to build and grow Acme Packet, the benefits and advantages of our products, including any enhancements or new features, services and programs, and our ability to achieve our goals, plans and objectives. Such forward-looking statements do not constitute guarantees of future performance and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These include, but are not limited to: difficulties in growing our customer base, difficulties leveraging market opportunities, difficulties providing solutions that meet the needs of customers, poor product sales, long sales cycles, difficulty developing new products, difficulty in relationships with vendors and partners, higher risk in international operations, difficulty managing rapid growth, and increased competition. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially form those projected or suggested in any forward-looking statements are contained in our recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those factors discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" in such filings.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE: Acme Packet, Inc.

Russian Company, a Competitive Carrier, Selects VocalTec for VoIP

VocalTec Communications Ltd. (NasdaqCM:VOCL), a global provider of carrier-class multimedia and voice-over-IP solutions for communication service providers, announced today that Russian Company, an alternative carrier in Russia, selected VocalTec's technology to further develop its VoIP network. Through this collaboration, Russian Company can now seamlessly connect their legacy telephony network with VocalTec's new packet based network. The deployment was achieved in partnership with Sintera, a leading Russian systems integrator.

As part of their VoIP infrastructure, Russian Company will deploy VocalTec's Essentra(TM: 65.81, 2.11, 3.31%) BAX, an application server enabling the delivery of residential and hosted enterprise VoIP services to their subscriber base. In addition, Russian Company will utilize VocalTec's Essentra(TM: 65.81, 2.11, 3.31%) CX, a scalable carrier-grade media gateway controller, to enable the termination of their IP traffic to the PSTN as well as for the termination of legacy PABX traffic to PSTN by CX (IUA and M3UA).

VocalTec is one of the first telecom vendors to receive comprehensive Class-5 certification for its VoIP softswitch solution, including certification for local node deployments under the new requirements issued by the Russian Ministry of Communications. This deployment provides further validation that VocalTec's Essentra solution meets all mandatory quality, functionality, legal and interoperability requirements, for commercial deployment throughout Russia.

"We are very much impressed by VocalTec's high-quality solutions," said Alexander Astrahanchev, General Manager at Sintera. "We rely on VocalTec's ability to quickly respond to our customers' needs, allowing us to bring cutting-edge communication services. VocalTec enables us to remain at the technological forefront of VoIP by its continuous introduction of new and improved applications to the marketplace."

"We look forward to expanding Sintera's service offering with our end-to-end solutions, as well as leveraging Sinetra's deep knowledge of the Russian market to increase our presence in the region," said Ido Gur, President and CEO of VocalTec. "Russia is a strategic market for VocalTec and I strongly believe that Sintera's experience as a leading systems integrator in Russia coupled with VocalTec's capabilities in VoIP technology is a winning combination."

About Sintera

Sintera LLC operates in the market of network and telecommunication equipment as a supplier of system solutions for over 6 years. We have successfully carried out large projects in the Sverdlovsk, Tyumen and Kaliningrad areas, the Primorye Territory, Kazakhstan and other regions of Russia, as well as in nearby foreign countries.

We distinguish ourselves by a high degree of flexibility in our approach to project implementation. Our key concept is to search for an optimum solution along with the customer in terms of its technical realization and functionality, and in terms of the financial investment. Our task is not only to deliver equipment, but to help our customers choose the option that will provide them with the optimal return-on-investment and serve as a reliable tool for developing our customers' business.

Having agreements with leading manufacturers and equipment suppliers such as VocalTec, Siemens, 3Doe, IPS and others, we are able to offer solutions that maximize and accurately corresponds to our customers' needs, beginning with data transmission, network and communication equipment, and concluding with transport infrastructure and power supply systems.

www.sintera.ru

About VocalTec

VocalTec Communications (NasdaqCM:VOCL) is a global provider of carrier-class multimedia and voice-over-IP solutions for communication service providers. A pioneer in VoIP technology since 1994, VocalTec provides proven trunking, peering and residential/enterprise VoIP application solutions that enable flexible deployment of next-generation networks (NGNs). Partnering with prominent system integrators and equipment manufacturers, VocalTec serves an installed base of dozens of leading carriers including Deutsche Telekom and Telecom Italia San Marino. VocalTec is led by a management team comprised of respected industry veterans.

www.vocaltec.com

Bigfoot's Latest Lag-Fighting Card Aims at VOIP

Bigfoot Networks introduced its latest card designed to fight network latency on Monday, the Killer Xeno, with an eye toward improving VOIP communication in network games.

Two versions of the card will be available: the Ultra, with 256 Mbytes of on-board RAM, will sell for $179.99; the Killer Pro, with 128-Mbytes of RAM, will be priced at $129.99.

The Pro version be sold both as an option on Alienware systems and resold under the eVGA brand, Bigfoot said. The Ultra version will only be sold under the Bigfoot name, at least for now. Both are PCI Express cards.

"The worldwide online gaming market is rapidly growing, and with more gaming customers come more customer requests, demands and needs. Alienware works to stay ahead of the curve and Bigfoot Networks helps us do this," said Frank Azor, senior vice president and general manager, Alienware, in a statement. "The Bigfoot Networks' Killer Xeno gives us the proven technology needed to guarantee customers' ultimate online gaming experience."

Bigfoot's line of cards attempt to smooth out what the company claims in an ongoing problem with network latency, which can affect the transmission of data packets and potentially affect online games. The latest Xeno cards address a growing trend in online gaming: using voice chat to communicate with teammates and taunt opposing players. The cards' network processing unit chip bypasses the Windows networking stack and hooks into the game itself; Bigfoot claims the cards are compatible with "all games".

Both cards include a firewall, VoIP chat and bandwidth control; the Ultra version also includes an onboard status monitor.
Sourse: http://www.pcmag.com