UC news roundup: Thinking Phone Networks in EMEA, Level 3 adds to portfolio, ShoreTel's new phone

05/17/13

Several news highlights today: Thinking Phone Networks has extended its cloud-based UC solution to target enterprises in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. Level 3 has launched its Carrier Cloud Voice solution as a wholesale offer to CLECS, cable operators, telcos and wireless carriers. Meanwhile, ShoreTel has launched a new DECT phone and upgraded its system management capabilities.

Sonus enhances SBC portfolio

05/14/13

Sonus has enhanced its session border controller portfolio, targeting both enterprise and service provider market opportunities. Among the enhancements: modular form factor session border controllers (SBCs) designed to permit customers to field-install digital signal processor (DSP) cards at their own pace, nearly 100 new software enhancements, and an enhanced Survivable Branch Appliance (SBA) functionality with mobile broadband 3G/4G failover capability meant to ensure Microsoft Lync Server operations during wide area network (WAN) failures.

Outlook.com integrates Skype

05/13/13

When we started this year as usual with our annual predictions, we suggested that Microsoft would have some material announcements about the integration of Skype and Lync, and while we're still waiting for that to (hopefully) happen, late last month Microsoft did announce that it is integrating Skype connectivity features with Outlook.com.

ShoreTel announces the ShoreTel Dock

05/07/13

ShoreTel has announced a new product called the ShoreTel Dock -- a business-grade docking station that transforms iPhones and iPads into desk phones when paired with ShoreTel Mobility. The ShoreTel Dock turns Apple handhelds running the ShoreTel Mobility app into business desk phones and enterprise collaboration tools. ShoreTel is demonstrating the ShoreTel Dock and its portfolio of enterprise unified communications solutions this week at Interop 2013 in Las Vegas.

Digium announces two new phone systems

05/03/13

Digium has announced the general availability of two new Switchvox appliances targeting the IP phone system needs of midsize businesses. The Switchvox 400 Series includes enterprise-class unified communications features, supporting up to 600 users in a single system. The latest products are added to the Digium portfolio that already includes a portfolio of hardware-based and software-based solutions -- along with the Switchvox Cloud a hosted version of the company's phone system that we covered in our newsletter two months ago.

Announcements from GENBAND's Perspectives13 conference

04/30/13

GENBAND hits the headlines today with three big announcements that were unveiled at the company's Perspectives13 conference. The first is the launch of the "Innovation Exchange," a collaborative business and technology exchange. The second item is also an announcement about collaboration: GENBAND has partnered with F5 Networks to deliver an Integrated SIP and Diameter Signaling Solution. And in product news, GENBAND has launched a WebRTC gateway with the release of GENBAND SPiDR.

Orange Business Services goes global with UCaaS

04/26/13

Orange Business Services has announced the global expansion of "Business Together as a Service" -- a move the company touts as the "market's first Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) offer available for large enterprises on a global scale," according to the company's statement. The cloud service, originally deployed in France and Europe, is hosted in three regional data centers (Atlanta, Frankfurt and Singapore) that are part of the Orange Business Services dedicated cloud computing infrastructure. The service is available on six continents.

Company announcements highlight SBC developments

04/23/13

Today we highlight two items covering developments with session border controllers (SBCs), with separate news from Dialogic and from GENBAND. In the first announcement, Dialogic disclosed that it has completed interoperability testing between its BorderNet 4000 SBC and BroadSoft's BroadWorks application server. The collaboration between BroadSoft and Dialogic is designed to deliver solutions to help service providers more easily offer unified communications (UC) services and hosted applications such as fixed-mobile convergence, modern call center capabilities, mobile video and HD voice.

Report: Wireless substitution, VoIP overtake ILEC landline dominance

04/19/13

We have long followed the trend of wireless substitution for landlines and the growing market share for VoIP as an alternative to traditional telco service. In a report released earlier this month, USTelecom said that, according to its estimates, more households now use wireless only than those that use an incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) phone service. The trade association's analysis and projections suggests that at the end of 2012 ILECs were no longer the dominant provider of residential voice services as more consumers "cut the cord" and as they transitioned to VoIP.

XO Communications enhances hosted PBX solution

04/16/13

XO Communications has announced enhancements to the company's hosted PBX service. The latest features upgrades now will provide better alternatives for multi-location business customers by offering a customer-provided bandwidth option. With the enhancements, XO Hosted PBX customers will now be able to connect to the XO VoIP service, leveraging the XO Hosted PBX features with an Internet connection from any broadband provider.

NextPlane offers federated UC

04/15/13

In our last newsletter, we talked about the need for interoperability and promised more coverage on the topic, so today we'd like to discuss federated unified communications services. Reaching out to an expert on UC federation, we spoke with Farzin Shahidi, the founder and CEO of NextPlane. UC Exchange Federation Services provides a rich set of high-fidelity federation capabilities across Microsoft Lync, OCS R2, OCS and LCS, Cisco Jabber XCP, Unified Presence Server (CUPS) and WebEx Messenger (formerly Cisco WebEx Connect), IBM Sametime, Google Apps, Jive OpenFire, Isode M-Link and eJabberd.

Interoperability issues hinder videoconferencing advancement

04/09/13

We'll be focusing on video systems and services interoperability in a couple of pieces this month, and today we start with a Webtorials TechNote covering the topic recently written by Gary Audin. Audin begins by observing that while multiple video standards and proprietary solutions are available, most are not interoperable. He asserts that in the face of growing demand for videoconferencing, interoperability issues still need to be addressed.

Mitel releases cloud-based contact center solution

04/05/13

Mitel has announced the release of its Mitel AnyWare Cloud Contact Center solution as the latest addition to the company's suite of cloud-based products. Mitel's contact center solution is targeted to address the small and midsize business market. The contact center service is integrated with the Mitel Anywhere suite of cloud-based unified communications features, bundled with a package that also includes local and long distance calling for about $65 per user.

BroadSoft introduces FMC solution

04/02/13

BroadSoft recently announced a fixed-mobile convergence solution that separates communication devices from service subscriptions for enterprises. The company's UC-One IMS is designed to help mobile operators more effectively address the higher-margin enterprise market segment by providing a single subscription for an employee's unified communication needs.

Alcatel-Lucent adds OpenTouch cloud services, new customer service suite

03/28/13

Still catching up on announcements made at Enterprise Connect held earlier this month in Orlando, Fla., today we highlight two recent Alcatel-Lucent announcements. The company unveiled new cloud-based communications services addressing both the larger enterprise and the small business market with the OpenTouch Suite for Cloud providing three segmented solutions: the Enterprise Cloud, the Office Cloud and the Personal Cloud. Alcatel-Lucent also introduced a new OpenTouch Customer Service solution that leverages a technology relationship between Alcatel-Lucent and Altitude Software.

Vonage adds mobile video, 8x8 upgrades its desktop

03/26/13

Two items today: Vonage announced earlier this month that it has released a new video calling feature from Vonage Mobile, while 8x8 has enhanced its virtual office business phone service with a new native desktop application.

Avaya announces collaborative cloud for service providers

03/22/13

Timed to coincide with the Enterprise Connect 2013 conference, Avaya announced additions to its Avaya Collaborative Cloud portfolio with offers specifically designed for cloud service providers (CSPs); these latest services include unified communications, contact center and video solutions for CSPs that are packaged with flexible choices and pricing models. CSPs can then help their enterprise clients offload the challenges of managing BYOD environments, widely dispersed workforces, and the shifting demands of end-customers.

Enterprise Connect 2013: Vidyo's latest moves

03/19/13

With over a dozen announcements so far coming out of this year's Enterprise Connect conference in Orlando, we'll spend the next several editions focused on announcements coming from the floor. Today, we highlight Vidyo's latest news about its virtual infrastructure along with the company's latest sales milestones.

Webtorials: SIP equipment license issues; UC's ongoing operational costs

03/15/13

Today, we'd like to take note of two issues covered by recent analysis provided at Webtorials. The first, a tech note titled "Ten SIP Trunk Equipment License Issues That Can Ruin Your Day (or Month)," was penned by our longtime colleague Gary Audin at Delphi. The second study, written at Nemertes, discusses how "Operational Costs Drive Stark Differences in First-Year Telephony [and] UC."

ShoreTel enhances mobile UC&C

03/12/13

ShoreTel has announced two new releases optimized for using the Apple iPad as a business communications tool. ShoreTel Mobility 6 and ShoreTel Conferencing's latest features are designed to enable integrated collaboration capabilities and increase accessibility for mobile users.

Digium introduces Switchvox Cloud – hosted unified communications solution

03/08/13

Digium announced it is now offering "Switchvox Cloud," a hosted version of the company's phone system, targeting small and midsize business (SMB) customers who want enterprise-class features at a price they can afford. Digium is a primary developer and sponsor of the Asterisk project, using open source software to provide unified communications.

Avaya beefs up contact center solutions

03/06/13

Avaya has unveiled new analytics and customer interaction solutions designed to harness the power of big data and the growing number of ways that customers expect access. Avaya's Customer Experience Management addresses the growing number of customer interaction channels, also seeking to provide organizations with more opportunity to extract valuable insights through smart analytics. Avaya Automated Chat and Avaya Aura Call Center Elite Multichannel solutions provide options for integrated Web, social media, SMS, IM and email customer interactions.

Orange Business Services Adds New Lync 2013 Features, Mobile Video App

03/01/13

Orange Business Services has had two announcements in recent weeks that are noteworthy: the company has deployed new unified communications and voice services based on Microsoft Lync 2013, and it has launched an Orange Video Meeting app providing video meetings via tablet or mobile device based on Radvision Scopia Mobile platform.

Catching up with IntelePeer

02/26/13

We spoke recently with IntelePeer to check in on their progress over the last six months, and they have been quite busy with numerous partnerships and portfolio upgrades. IntelePeer provides cloud-based communications services for enterprises and service providers, using its CloudWorx platform combined with the SuperRegistry database — constituting an intelligent routing solution with a global directory of more than 450 million telephone numbers and end point identifying IP addresses.

Logitech For Business upgrades 'the last inch' for UC

02/22/13

Logitech for Business has been busy improving the business user's experience for "the last inch" with additions to its unified communications peripherals product portfolio. In the last month it has announced integrated phone and video products designed to work with Cisco Jabber.

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. Larry Hettick, an independent analyst and consultant, is a 30-year industry veteran. He has covered VoIP and UC at Network World for 12 years.