VOIPfeed

Linux-based VoIP Application Cluster

ZDNet is reporting VoX Communications has released the first-ever Linux-based server cluster. I wonder if Asterisk is in their mix...

<a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?p=460" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: First-ever Linux-based VoIP server cluster eyed"> First-ever Linux-based VoIP server cluster eyed</a> by <a href="http://zdnet.com">ZDNet</a>'s Russell Shaw -- Wholesale and retail VoIP service provider VoX Communications says it has deployed what it believes to be the first-ever VoIP application server cluster technology based on the Linux operating system.  The initial deployment is in metro Orlando, Fla., and can support up to 10,000 subscribers. The company, however, believes that by additing additional server clusters to [...]

Vonage Raises Another $200 Million

Vonage, the market leader in home and soho VoIP solutions (in my estimation), has raised another $200 million.

Read more.

I would venture to say that Vonage is the most recognized VoIP provider; largely due to a successful media campaign. Undoubtedly, they are feeling the heat from new entrants by the names of Skype, AOL, Yahoo, et al. whose brand recognition and existing userbase could easily knock Vonage from the top. This influx of cash should help fend off the giants.

Cisco Buys Sipura via Linksys

Via their subsidiary Linksys, Cisco Systems has purchased Sipura Technology. Sipura Technology specializes in VoIP technology and end-user equipment. Their products are used my many VoIP providers, as well as in PC-based VoIP PBX solutions such as Asterisk.

Cisco, who already provides end-user equipment to, top provider, Vonage, is certainly claiming their stake in the VoIP CPE market with this acquisition.

Read more.

AOL: You've Got VOICEmail

This past week AOL launched it's rumored VOIP service in the United States.  While the move puts them in the ring with major telecommunications providers such as Verizon and Qwest, analysts don't seem too excited. It is seen simply as a way to leverage their existing base for selling added-value services. In fact, it is surmised that many of their existing subscribers don't even know what VOIP is. Some analysts indicate that this is a way to help slow down their shrinking subscriber base. Perhaps it is a way to recoup some of the revenues lost to those who switched to their broadband services.

The way I see it, an email address is like a phone number in many ways. It is a known way for people to get in touch with you. I remember the days before number portability when moving meant you lost your phone number forever. There was always a fear that you were going to lose the all-important phone call. The same applies to email; I know of numerous AOL users who switched to AOLonBroadband just for the convenience of maintaining their existing AOL email address. I think, however, that this goes beyond convenience, missed phone calls and missed emails. 

VOIP is only going to get cheaper. $30 unlimited today will be $20 tomorrow. Might it go to $0 someday? What if AOL plans to roll it into their service offering. They already have PSTN presences around the globe. They need to do something with their dial-up presence as they lose dial-up subscribers. Instant Messenger is AOL's killer-app, Yahoo and MSN play second fiddle. What are AOLs plans for integrating AIM with VoIP. Yahoo  and MSN Messenger practically do it already...as does Skype (well, they integrate IM into their VoIP offering). It will be interesting to see how this all unfolds.

Read more about AOL's VoIP play.

Verizon feeling the pressure?

Verizon is relaunching their home VoIP offering - VoiceWing. They must be losing customers in droves to the likes of AT&T and Vonage. I guess they finally realized it's better to get half a loaf of bread than no loaf at all.

Via Techdirt.

Will Open-Source Asterisk revolutionize the PBX marketplace?

Over the past few years Asterisk, the open-souce, IP-based, pbx for Linux has been creating a stir. With Asterisk, one can build an enterprise pbx system for a fraction of the cost of an equivalent Lucent or Nortel solution. The fact that it is open-source carries the same complaints/concerns of any other open-source solution (Apache, mySQL). Fortunately there are an increasing number of business which support Asterisk.

I could go on, but The Register has summed it up quite nicely.

VOIP Blocking - Vonage speaks out

In a recent FCC decision, Madison River Communications, a broadband company out of North Carolina, was fined for restricting Vonage service to its users. At VON 2005, Vonage CEO, Jeffrey Citron said, "traditional carriers can't afford to compete all-out with Vonage and other VoIP upstarts despite having greater resources."  The fear is that those carriers (essentially those who  own or run the broadband networks) will restrict, or make it difficult, for the Vonages of the world to conduct business.

Citron contends that there is a larger issue at stake.

"I think it's a technical issue that extrapolates itself into a First Amendment issue," Citron said. Service providers that own infrastructure and deliver content or services over it now have the capability to look into the packets going to and from a customer's connection and determine what kind of service they are using and even the content of those packets, he said. It is technically possible for network operators to read e-mail, block e-mail messages based on content, and limit access to Web sites, Citron said.

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voip.google.com - Google's next move?

Google was asking all kinds of questions at Spring VON 2005. MSN, Yahoo! and AOL have been in the the IM and to some extent, the voice chat market for quite some time. At the same conference AOL annouced plans to unveil a VOIP service next month. According to the article, Yahoo! already owns VOIP service in Europe.

While it may seem like Google has some catching up to do; I feel the market is still ripening. I have a feeling that Google's brand name, user base, and innovation will lead to their success no matter when they choose to enter the market. (Have you seen Google Maps yet? Goodbye Yahoo and Mapquest!)

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Convergence in Minnesota

In Minnesota, various government agencies are moving from Qwest telephony to a VoIP solution. In doing so they eliminate 15,000 phone lines over the next two years. One would think that government agencies, would normally be late adopters of the technology. It would appear that the cost benefits were too great to ignore - approximately $100k/year. The project will utilize the existing state-wide data network, which ironically, is still provided by Qwest.
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Via

VoIP not for Finance

The Finance industry feels that VOIP networks are too rickety in their M&A driven world. Because of networks "cobbled together through mergers and acquisitions. The result is often inefficiency, high cost, inadequate disaster recovery and an inability to deliver new bandwidth-intensive applications." Maybe they could execute VOIP (and the rest of the IT vision) properly if the bankers and lawyers put less of our money in their pockets.
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