VOIP News

Sweden-based Raketu, an Internet communications, information, and entertainment company, announced this week that they have launched RakWeb, which is a new web-based VoIP service. Because of the unique set up, customers will not have to download any software to use it.  They just visit Raketu.com, enter their telephone number, enter the number they’re calling, and they’re then connected at a reduced rate, as compared to traditional calling rates. With this new offering, Raketu will be giving Skype and JaJah a run for their money.

“Raketu’s mission is to make Internet telephony both fun and accessible to everyone,” said Greg Parker, CEO of Raketu Communications. “Whether you have dial-up Internet access or broadband, whether you feel more comfortable downloading and interfacing with an interactive desktop application, or you only want to access your Internet telephony services from a Web-browser, you can do it with Raketu.”

Features and benefits include:

Envox Worldwide, a provider of IP-based voice solutions, announced recently that their standards-based CTI software, Envox CT Connect, has been selected as a winner of the 2007 CRM Excellence Award by Technology Marketing Corporation’s Customer Interaction Solutions® magazine.

“The CRM Excellence Awards recognize companies like Envox Worldwide that have proven to be true CRM partners to their customers and clients. Envox demonstrated to the editors of Customer Inter@ction Solutions that its Envox CT Connect software substantially improved the processes of their clients’ businesses,” said Nadji Tehrani, Executive Group Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Customer Inter@ction Solutions.

Envox CT Connect’s features include:

Andy Abramson spends a lot of time on the road, and in this business arena, he is certainly not alone.  He recently put together a piece listing his needs when seeking out hotel reservations.  Although I’m a little late in mentioning it, it’s definitely still worth checking out.  Here are just a few items that are important to him.  You can check out the entire list right here.

2. Wired and Wireless in Room Access- The ability to plug my travel router in so I can use multiple devices over the Internet connection such as a WiFi phone, dual mode phone, Nokia N800 Internet Tablet or a second PC when traveling with my wife to be.

6. Relaxing and Inviting Lobbies and Bars with Outlets Honestly, getting out of the room, sipping a Martini and watching some jerk try to pick up on a hottie is still fun now that I’m getting married, but even more so, ideas and inspiration comes from stimulation. But so many bars and lobbies are cold, sterile and just no fun. Maybe that’s why I love TabletHotels and Kimpton Hotel properties so much these days.

15. Sound Proof Windows Nothing is worse than hearing the trash truck’s claxon at 3 AM. As a matter of fact, why is the hotel even thinking that a 3 AM pick up even makes any sense. People stay in hotels to sleep, not to make trash.

The phrase “triple-play” certainly seems to be quite the rage these days, doesn’t it?  It gives companies an effective way to remain competitive in a fierce, aggressive, dog-eat-dog market, and sometimes allow consumers just a bit of cost savings as well.  Alcatel-Lucent just announced that Kenya Data Network, a data communications carrier, will be using the Alcatel-Lucent triple play service delivery architecture (TPSDA) to bring voice, video and data services to their consumers throughout Kenya and other East African countries.

The contract is valued at approximately 14 million Euros and is said to be the largest TPSDA deployment in the area, and will be available to some 350,000 subscribers.  Availability will start this year in Kenya’s capital Nairobi followed by the cities of Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, Nakuru, Nyeri and others.

“As time-to-market is a significant factor for us, we can rely on Alcatel-Lucent’s unmatched experience in providing quality, end-to-end triple play services within our required timeframes,” said Kai Wulff, Managing Director- Kenya Data Networks Limited. “Residential customers in Kenya will now be in a position to enjoy high quality triple play and advanced Internet access services.”

“This project will enable KDN to expand its business throughout the East African region,” saidOlivier Picard, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s Europe and South activities. “Thanks to Alcatel-Lucent’s end-to-end, triple play-ready network, KDN subscribers will be able to enjoy a seamless user-experience when using voice, multimedia and Internet services.”

For more information, visit
www.alcatel-lucent.com/tpsda.

Telia has jumped into the VoIP market with a new triple play package that will offer broadband, digital TV and IP telephony to customers in Swedish households. 

“We know that some consumers want IP telephony, which is why we are introducing the offer. Telia is today, thanks to its recent investments in digital TV, Sweden’s largest supplier of triple play with landline telephony. We are now expanding into a totally IP-based solution,” says Erik Hallberg, head of Broadband Services at TeliaSonera in Sweden.  “We will offer both landline and IP telephony in the foreseeable future. There is no doubt, however, that IP telephony will over time become the dominant service, and our focus on increasing the number of IP-based services is clear.”

For the time being, their triple play with broadband offer will only be available to 2.4 million households, but Telia plans to continue their build-out across Sweden to alleviate this issue in the future.  

The initial packages include:

IP telephony, digital TV and broadband up to 2 Mbps

SEK 349/month

The above package with up to 8 Mbps

SEK 369/month

The above package with up to 24 Mbps

SEK 419/month

For more information about price and special offers, visit
www.telia.se.

Even though tons of people have multimedia-capable phones, the research team at In-Stat reports that US wireless subscribers have been slow to actually take advantage of these capabilities. Over a third of respondents to a recent In-Stat wireless subscriber survey have wireless handsets that have MP3, video and radio capabilities, but that doesn’t mean they’re being used.  The point of having a souped-up phone is to make best use of all its features, otherwise you’re better of fgetting a more basic model and saving your scratch.

“The growth in multimedia handsets has more to do with operators pushing multimedia handsets to the market, rather than a strong desire by consumers to adopt multimedia handsets or use multimedia services,” says Bill Hughes, In-Stat analyst. “However, the announcement of the Apple iPhone, in January 2007, changes the underlying dynamics of the market, and may give it a significant boost to all wireless carriers if Apple can deliver on the hype.”

Additional In-Stat research found the following:

• The number of respondents to In-Stat’s survey owning a multimedia handset doubled from 2006 to 2007.
• Few respondents without a multimedia mobile phone have an interest in acquiring one.
• More than 80% of respondents with handsets that have the ability to play MP3 tracks rarely, if ever, use this feature.

A recent study by Statistics Canada revealed that the majority of Canadian households still rely on land-line telephone services, although a full two-thirds also have cellular telephone service.

This time, when surveyed, respondents were also asked cable telephone services and VoIP services.  “As of December 2006, about 10.6% of Canadian households reported using a cable telephone service or a ‘VoiP’ service. About 13.5% used them in Alberta and 13.2% in Quebec, the highest rates among the provinces. Only 4.9% used them in Newfoundland and Labrador, the lowest rate.  Usage rates may reflect availability. Only 3.5% of households in rural areas reported using one or the other of these technologies, compared to 14.1% of households in urban areas with a population of 500,000 or more. Less than 1% of households reported cable telephone or “VoiP” services as their only means of telecommunication.”

Those households that did not have a landline cited the installation cost was prohibitive, but 31.7% of those without a landline did report that they were using cable telephone or “VoiP” services.

Stranger things have certainly happened, but if British Teleocmmunications and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has their way, you just might be able to make VoIP calls from your PlayStation.  The companies have hooked up to sign a deal that plans to transform the PlayStation Portable gaming device by adding wireless broadband communications capabilities, including handheld video calls, voice calls and messaging.  Because it is just too inconvenient to stop playing and get up and find a phone, right?

The companies entered into a four-year contract to “develop a raft of extra features for the successful PSP, which has already shipped over 8 million in Europe and 24 million globally.  BT will be SCEE’s lead wireless communications partner across SCEE territories and is already working with other communications providers to deliver this exciting service. BT and SCEE will initially promote the offer in the UK.”

Steve Andrews, BT chief, Mobility and Convergence, said: “The combination of SCEE and BT working together is a natural fit. Sony is a world-class company producing some of the world’s most innovative electronic devices and BT is at the forefront of communications with the 21CN global platform.  The PSP is an excellent device for both gaming and communications, because of its high quality screen and audio capabilities. With over 8 million PSPs shipped across Europe, we are very excited by the opportunity to give customers a whole new communications experience, connecting and seeing friends across the world through BT’s technology.”

David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, said: “It is very exciting for us to be partnering with BT on such a unique project.  The opportunity to combine our market leading expertise with BT’s knowledge in communications opens up many possibilities and we look forward to bringing many exciting communication functions to PSP fans.”

Mediatrix Telecom, a provider of VoIP access devices and gateways, announced today that they have a new series of VoIP Access Devices, Mediatrix 4100.  With the ability to connect 4, 8, 16, or 24 analog phones and/or faxes to a broadband modem or LAN on a single platform, the new Mediatrix 4100 Series is ideal for medium-sized offices that have varying port uses. 

Features include:

- Web interface, making initial set-up easy

- Auto-provision by getting encrypted configuration from a TFTP/HTTP server

- Intelligent PSTN bypass allows users to make emergency calls and keep their phone service in a power outage or network failure

“As the enterprise VoIP market continues to evolve, we have worked diligently to provide VoIP technology that is of the highest levels of performance and voice quality for the SMB,” said Philippe Babin, Director of Product Line Management for Mediatrix. “Mediatrix’s experience in manufacturing advanced VoIP solutions has enabled us to rollout a new family of VoIP Access Devices to our customers that has been optimally architected with the features, scalability, and flexibility that meets a wide variety of VoIP requirements.”

DialGet.com is now offering a new VoIP service that plans to maximize the benefits of VoIP technology by bringing cheap and portable telephony solutions over Internet broadband networks.

With the new DialGet.com service, subscribers can “convert their high speed internet connections into telephone lines and save up to 62% on the costs associated with traditional telephone services. Other than saving on the costs of conversations, people who opt for DialGet.com benefit from standard calling options that come with VoIP based services. These calling options include standard features available on traditional telephone lines as well as some added new features unique to VoIP technology. Some of these calling options are: Call Waiting, Caller ID Display, Voicemail, Call Hold, Caller ID Block, 3-Ways Calling, Call Forward Always, Call Forward On-Busy and Call Forward No-Answer.”

VoIP users can keep their old phone number, and users have the option of trying out DialGet.com’s service without a commitment with their 30 day money back guarantee.