Mobile UC apps take off

07/02/09

We've noticed substantial progress in the last six months on mobile unified communications: both telephony system and handset suppliers have added a wide range of features and we believe that infrastructure market has hit "critical mass" by providing users with a wide range of choices.

Google to offer free Google Voice

06/30/09

Google disclosed through a blog posting that it will soon be offering Google Voice free to subscribers on its waiting list, extending the advanced VoIP service beyond the original GrandCentral subscriber base.

Agito to support VoIP over Wi-Fi

06/26/09

Agito has announced support for VoIP over Wi-Fi and Unified Communications on Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry handsets. Agito Networks' newest enterprise mobility solution also delivers Wi-Fi/cellular network handover to the BlackBerry.

IBM to manage Qwest services

06/23/09

Qwest and IBM announced last week that the two companies had signed a five-year agreement for IBM to manage Qwest services targeted to Qwest's midsize business customers including unified communications, managed security and network management.

XCast Labs draws $2.7M finance deal

06/19/09

XCast Labs caught our attention earlier this month when it closed on a $2.7 million financing deal. The company targets smaller cable operators, competitive local exchange carriers, and others who want to offer integrated IP-based services to their users.

AT&T adds features to telepresence service

06/16/09

AT&T announced enhancements to its managed telepresence solution last week, now providing improved security, user controls and video sharing along with Lotus Notes Domino support. The enhancements mark a collaborative effort between AT&T and Cisco since AT&T uses Cisco TelePresence systems for the managed service. AT&T offers the service on a global basis and for both internal and intercompany use.

NEC launches collaboration app

06/12/09

NEC Unified Solutions launched UC for Enterprise Collaboration  last week, offering a video, Web conferencing and collaboration application. The company also launched its Hosted Collaboration as a Web-based service with the same features and functionality yet designed for the small and midsize business market.

Cisco updates Visual Networking Index

06/09/09

Cisco has released an update to their Visual Networking Index with some interesting projections on IP traffic over the next several years. The study is based on Cisco's analysis and modeling of multiple analysts' forecasts and it predicts that global IP traffic will increase fivefold by 2013 to two-thirds of a zettabyte. (A zettabyte is a trillion gigabytes.) Much of the growth will come from interactive media and video content delivered across multiple devices.

AT&T targets SMBs

06/05/09

AT&T announced last week a business "triple play" bundle targeted for small businesses that includes wireless voice, wired voice and high speed Internet services -- starting at less than $100 a month. The "All for Less" bundle doesn't offer any new services, but the low price tag may be very attractive to the small business, especially in tough economic times.

Siemens announces UC application suite

06/02/09

Siemens Enterprise Communications announced a unfied communications application suite with HiPath 3000 software upgrades targeted to help the small and midsize businesses address communications costs. The company followed its SMB announcement with similar news about upgraded UC and video features for the mid-to-large tier customers on its HiPath 4000.

Fixed mobile convergence and mobile UC

05/29/09

Today we'd like to refer our readers to two papers posted on Webtorials that provide some excellent analysis. The first piece, written by Michael F. Finneran at dBrn Associates, is titled "Enterprise Options for Fixed Mobile Convergence and Mobile UC." It provides a structure for understanding and evaluating the various enterprise- and carrier-based fixed mobile convergence FMC solutions. The second paper comes from Fluke Networks and offers a discussion on the "Business Case for VoIP Readiness Network Assessment."

VoIP takes the stage at Interop

05/26/09

In this newsletter, we'll provide a quick wrap-up on VoIP and convergence-related announcements from Interop 2009 held last week in Las Vegas. Highlights include news from Glowpoint on its Telepresence InterExchange, Polycom with several announcements, Shoretel's integration showcase, and Skype's views on business voice.

Microsoft, HP partnership targets UC

05/22/09

The focus of this newsletter will be on a Microsoft and HP partnership announced last week at Interop 2009 in Las Vegas. As alliances go, this one could have a notable effect on the unified communications market because the plans call for a $180 million investment and collaboration on products, services, sales and support across a wide variety of the Microsoft and HP portfolios.

The merits of leasing communication technology

05/19/09

We'd like to refer our readers to a worthwhile resource that Gary Audin, our longtime colleague at Delphi, recently published discussing the merits of leasing (vs. buying) communications technology. In his analysis, Audin reviews benefits from both the CFO and the CIO perspectives.

VoIP, UC offerings announced

05/15/09

Verizon Business and Avaya have expanded their joint-offerings for VoIP and contact center capabilities, and Sprint Nextel has spelled out their unified communications strategy for both wireless and wireline offers.

VidyoConferencing vs. video conferencing

05/13/09

Following our recent newsletter about video over IP featuring a discussion with Radvision, we had a chance to get another viewpoint from Ofer Shapiro, CEO at Vidyo and Marty Hollander, SVP for Marketing, about the merits of a Scalable Video Coding (SVC) approach. Both executives are industry veterans in video conferencing and enjoy bringing disruptive technologies to market.

Breadcrumbs to progress on fixed mobile convergence

05/11/09

Today we turn our attention to the world of wireless with recent announcements from AT&T, Qwest, Verizon, and Cablevision. Though each announcement has a slightly different topic, we think they collectively point toward progress in the converged enterprise and consumer-centric applications and content across fixed and mobile networks.

Acme Packet buys Covergence

05/06/09

Acme Packet last week announced it has acquired Covergence in exchange for about $22.2 million in stock and $600,000 in cash. Covergence provides software-based session border controllers (SBC) for unified communications, and is focused on the enterprise market while Acme Packet's portfolio is more typically found in service provider networks. Acme Packet's move follows the company's April 2009 release of the Net-Net 3800, a hardware-based SBC also designed for small enterprise sites, contact centers and service providers.

Mitel takes the next step in software delivery

05/04/09

Mitel recently took the next step with its software delivery strategy when it launched the Mitel Dynamic Extension solution. Dynamic Extension offers single-number 'reachability,' so calls to a user's business phone line can simultaneously ring up to eight devices in a "personal ring group," handing off the call seamlessly between devices.

Making different video systems interoperable

04/29/09

Following our recent coverage of video over IP and telepresence, we heard in a follow-up interview from Bob Romano, VP of Marketing at Radvision, about progress to make different video systems interoperable. Radvision is a leading provider of products and technologies for unified visual communications over IP and Romano is an industry veteran. Our discussions focused on Scalable Video Codec (SVC) technology and the ongoing role of the Multipoint Control Unit (MCU); the MCU is a device used to bridge videoconferencing connections.

An unusual VoIP provider

04/27/09

With some stand-alone VoIP services like Vonage stagnant and others like Verizon's VoiceWing and AT&T's CallVantage dead or dying, we decided to check in on a company called magicJack, an unusual VoIP provider. We were surprised with what we found out when we talked with Dan Borislow, the inventor of the technology and co-foundeder of the company. The biggest surprise? MagicJack has over 3 million customers and is adding 250,000 new customers a month, according to Borislow.

AT&T expands its contact center portfolio

04/22/09

AT&T last week announced that it has expanded its contact center portfolio with a new hosted service that features a shared platform using Genesys software. In another announcement, AT&T notified customers that it is discontinuing its CallVantage VoIP service in 2009.

How will Skype affect the unified communications market?

04/20/09

Last week, we covered a Skype announcement about its VoIP application for the iPhone, today we'll follow-up with additional news and analysis about the company. In the news category, eBay last week announced it plans to separate Skype from the company. In the latter category, we'd like to share some great analysis about Skype's business strategy and the implications for the unified communications market from Brian Riggs, Research Director, Enterprise Software and Communications at Current Analysis.

Cisco upgrades its telepresence and unified communications portfolio

04/15/09

Cisco last month announced a series of upgrades to its unified communications and telepresence portfolios. With the unified communications upgrades, Cisco has improved mobile access, video collaboration and extended interoperability across multiple applications and devices from Cisco, Microsoft, and Apple. With its second announcement, the company extends its solution to the mid-market business with Cisco TelePresence from any conference room environment, standards-based video conferencing session or Web-based video session.

The implications of Skype's free software application for the iPhone and iPod touch

04/13/09

This week we'll wrap up our highlights from the recent industry conferences NCTA Cable Show, VoiceCon 2009, and CTIA. Today we'll cover announcements from Sprint's VoIP upgrades benefiting its wholesale cable customers and we'll discuss the implications of Skype's free software application for the iPhone and iPod touch.

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Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. Larry Hettick is a principal analyst at Current Analysis.