IBM releases tools to enable mobile devices to mimic the PC

09/03/08

IBM last month announced software and services to enable mobile devices to closely mimic the desktop features that were only available on the PC. According to the company, the new software includes products with business intelligence, collaboration, social networking and business performance capabilities. IBM is also providing developers with tools to make existing software applications run on most mobile platforms including the BlackBerry and iPhone, as well as Windows Mobile- and Symbian-based handsets.

Mitel and Sun add unified communications to Sun's thin-client platform

09/01/08

Late last month, Sun Chairman Scott McNealy, and Mitel Chairman Terry Matthews delivered a Webcast on their thoughts on convergence in a thin-client environment. The discussion follows two March 2008 announcements by the companies unveiling the availability of the Sun Ray Unified IP Client from Mitel and availability of the Mitel Communications Suite on the Sun Fire X4150. McNealy and Matthews were both very bullish on their joint progress, and we had a chance to follow up with Matthews after the Webcast.

SMB managed service providers challenged by green IT, security, managed VoIP

08/27/08

We recently spoke with Charles Weaver, president of the MSPAlliance about his observations on the evolutionary trends in the SMB market. The MSPAlliance is a professional association and accrediting body for the managed services industry. According to Weaver, VoIP and unified communications are at the heart of managed services growth - whether the managed services provider is offering a hosted VoIP or a premise-based VoIP solution. Noting that MSPs can either become the enterprise's fully outsourced IT department or simply work with the IT team, Weaver attributes the growth of MSPs to the availability of management tools and platforms that are much more effective today than they were five years ago.

AT&T halts CallVantage VoIP - is this the end of stand-alone consumer VoIP?

08/25/08

AT&T recently stopped offering its CallVantage VoIP service to new subscribers. With no official announcement, online shoppers for the service were greeted with a message thanking would-be customers for their interest and noting that the company is not currently accepting new orders for the VoIP service. The decision affects both the consumer and SMB versions of the service. AT&T will continue to provide CallVantage to existing customers, although it has not disclosed what will happen when an existing customer wants to move or change their current service.

IMS: Heavy on planning but zero on revenue

08/20/08

Tom Nolle, founder and president of CIMI Corporation and a longtime industry analyst recently published an "Unconventional Wisdom" brief titled "Beyond IMS" that we'd like to highlight today and also recommend to our readers. Nolle starts with the premise that, "One of the most significant technology shifts that have accompanied 'convergence' is the shift from conceptualizing service features as attributes of network devices to conceptualizing them as something hosted 'above' the network. Feature hosting is an integral part of the whole convergence concept, in fact." However, he points out that the shift also raises several questions and issues.

Who wins as suppliers break softswitches into multiple pieces?

08/18/08

Joe McGarvey, principal analyst for IP services infrastructure at Current Analysis recently published an advisory report on the trend for softswitch suppliers to break up the softswitch into multiple pieces as they engage in a new round of disaggregation. He attributes the move to improved cost and performance efficiencies associated with a modular architecture and also points out that the disaggregation will help operators to "smoothly and incrementally move their service delivery infrastructures to an IMS-based architecture." But the trend also raises multiple questions.

Covergence bridges IBM, Microsoft unified communications

08/13/08

Covergence, best known for controlling, securing and managing real-time services with its Covergence Session Manager, announced Monday that it is upgrading its Covergence Collaboration Gateway (CCG) to support interoperability between IBM Sametime 8.0 and Microsoft's unified communications platforms. The company also introduced a subscription-based pricing alternative to its CCG customers.

Siemens enterprise rises, backed by Gores

08/11/08

Late last month, Siemens announced it had decided on The Gores Group as a partner for its enterprise communications business. The partnership decision follows Siemens' increased investment in its existing global services infrastructure, its move to deliver software-based unified communication services announced earlier this year, and a restructuring plan the company announced in March.

Telanetix targets VoIP package at Costco customers

08/06/08

Last month, Telanetix's AccessLine Division launched a product to Costco members that combines a low-cost business VoIP phone service with a VoIP business phone system. The package is targeted at members operating a small and midsize business with five or fewer employees. According to Telanetix, the Digital Phone Service package is up to 50% cheaper than comparable offerings from traditional phone companies and equipment manufacturers. The service includes local and long-distance calling, it supports toll free and international calling, and includes traditional VoIP system features like fax mailboxes and automated attendant.

SinglePipe gives muscle to the underdogs in the triple-play business

08/04/08

Based on incoming Q2 2008 financial reports, the Tier-1 cable TV providers such as Comcast and Cablevision are continuing to pick up consumer VoIP subscribers at the expense of legacy phone companies including Verizon and AT&T. For example, based on VoIP serviceable homes within their territories, Comcast now has 12.5% voice market share and Cablevision reported 37.6% voice share to homes passed. To counter the cable companies' successes, phone companies are using DSL and fiber to the premise (FTTP) combined with their own video to make up a discounted triple-play package.

Unified communications solutions for 7 cents a day

07/30/08

Objectworld last week announced that it is now offering unified communications and communications-enabled business process (CEBP) software solutions for SMBs with Microsoft Windows platforms for as little as 7 cents a day per user.

Polycom makes video conferencing and telepresence easier

07/28/08

Polycom Monday announced two new products designed to make video conferencing and telepresence easier for the enterprise and SMBs. When we spoke with Laura Shay, Director for Product Marketing at Polycom, she said that from the big picture view, "video conferencing is exciting but implementation can sometimes be difficult." With the announcements, Polycom's strategy of "VC2" is to make using a video call as easy as dialing a phone for the end user and as easy to administer and manage as an e-mail account for the IT staff, according to Shay. The two new products announced are the first wave of products designed to make the Polycom vision a reality.

Unified communications and contact centers, another perspective

07/23/08

Following up on several of our newsletters about unified communications trends, how unified communications is a useful tool for contact centers, and our concept of "unified applications," we recently had the chance to interview Ernie Wallerstein, President Americas at Zeacom for his perspectives on our positions. Zeacom is a global provider of unified communications solutions with a customer base of more than 2500 small and midsized organizations in 25 countries.

Video over IP options

07/21/08

While telepresence is all the rage, we also note that other video over IP options may be well suited for enterprises of all sizes - especially when the ROI for a full telepresence isn't proven, or when a video option is included as a feature that is bundled with a managed IP service offering. We recently spoke with Jason Redisch, the Principal Architect at Virtela on his company's approach to various video over IP solutions.

Outsourced VoIP systems

07/16/08

While all the Tier 1 service providers have had a VoIP offering for several years, the same isn't necessarily true for Tier 2 and Tier 3 carriers and ISPs, because deploying a VoIP service may stretch the limited resources for these telecom providers. To help, companies like VoIP Logic offer outsourced VoIP systems and solutions based on best-of-breed technology and best practices engineering.

The world enterprise telephony markets

07/14/08

Frost & Sullivan released a report last week on the progress of the world enterprise telephony markets. The company found that suppliers had shipped more than 48.4 million lines in 2007 and estimates this to reach 62.1 million in 2013. According to the report, natural replacement remains the single most dominant trigger for new deployment in the installed base of the world enterprise telephony market, and greenfield sites are leapfrogging to IP systems.

BT's fully-managed video solution

07/09/08

BT announced late last month that it was launching a fully-managed video solution called "BT One Source for Cisco TelePresence." The new service combines Cisco's high-definition technology with BT Conferencing's management services to provide customers with, according to the company, "an easy-to-use, reliable and cost-effective immersive video conferencing solution."

IMS and NGN Forums evolve the Plugfests

07/07/08

Earlier this year, we bemoaned the lack of proven multivendor interoperability as one of the roadblocks to a successful IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), as interoperability is needed to extend the usefulness of the IMS platform beyond voice applications. However, the IMS Forum hasn't been sitting by idly and last month at NXTcomm 08, they announced the interoperability results of NGN Plugfest 5.

Mitel upgrades, integrates, and rebrands the Inter-Tel portfolio

07/02/08

Mitel announced several enhancements this week targeted to help SMBs increase customer satisfaction, grow revenues, and drive productivity. The upgrades and changes are largely built around further integration of the former Inter-Tel communications platforms with tailored solutions that are uniquely suited for micro, small and midsized businesses.

T-Mobile launches landline VoIP service nationwide

06/30/08

T-Mobile announced a nationwide VoIP-based landline phone service that offers subscribers unlimited domestic calls for $10 a month. The service, called T-Mobile @Home, is the lowest priced unlimited plan in America. The T-Mobile @Home is available exclusively for T-Mobile customers, effective July 2, 2008.

VoIP and IP Telephony pass the 'tipping point'

06/25/08

We believe that VoIP and IP Telephony have passed the "tipping point" so that the key question now is no longer whether/when to install, but how to manage what you have installed. So today we'd like to direct our readers to a continuation of a great tutorial series that discusses the myriad factors that affect VoIP call quality performance (e.g., MOS, latency, packet loss, jitter buffer loss and ACOM), and troubleshooting methods.

Vendors tout unified communications and FMC advances

06/23/08

Today we'll highlight a few announcements made at NXTcomm 2008 which wrapped up last week in Las Vegas. The news comes in separate announcements about unified communications advances from Verizon, Microsoft and Nortel, while the next two items come from NextPoint and Taqua (on fixed-mobile convergence).

Infineon introduces a new family of next-gen VoIP access apps

06/18/08

The NXTcomm 2008 Show opened this week in Las Vegas and today we'll highlight some of the early VoIP and convergence related announcements from the conference provided by Infineon Technologies (new chip-level advances); Acme Packet (network management enhancements); and Tekelec (an ENUM-based solution for Cable Operators).

AudioCodes joins the ranks of session border controller suppliers

06/16/08

The list of session border controller (SBC) suppliers grew by one last week when AudioCodes announced the introduction of its Mediant 1000 Multi-Service Business Gateway (MSBG). The device combines a Media Gateway, enterprise class Session Border Controller, Data Router & Firewall, LAN Switch, WAN access, Stand Alone Survivability (SAS) and an on-board general purpose server. It is designed to complement service provider offers for IP-Centrex and SIP Trunking services, as well as distributed enterprises.

What Cisco Motion brings to the FMC table

06/11/08

Cisco recently announced a fixed mobile convergence (FMC) strategy and unified platform to improve delivery of enterprise mobility applications between Wi-Fi and mobile networks. Cisco will team with ecosystem partners that include Nokia, Oracle, AeroScout, Agito Networks and Airetrak, along with industry-specific application partners.

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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.