VOIP News

Asustek Computer, Inc. is launching two new motherboards next month that will turn common household telephones into Internet phones by using Skype Ltd.’s VoIP software.

The M2N/TeleSky and P5B/TeleSky motherboards come with the Asus TeleSky telecom adaptor, along with 60 SkypeOut minutes.

The new motherboards are just another way for Skype to get ahead in the Internet calling software arena.  Instead of having to buy special phones or headsets, these new motherboards will allow users to make calls by hooking up a regular phone to the motherboard.

The boards support all Skype functions, including SkypeIn, SkypeOut, Skype Conference, call waiting, speed-dial and three-way calls, and do require Microsoft Corp. Windows 2000, XP, MCE, or XP64.

VOIP5000, Inc. announced their plans today to release a new version of their click-to-call service, Clixme. 

The subscription-based service is geared towards businesses that want to use click-to-call to deliver customers to their call centers directly, thereby cutting down on hold time and connecting users to live operators sooner. The official release date is Monday, December 11.

VoIP 5000, Inc. CEO Fotis Georgiadis said in a statement, “For the past few months, our team has been working hard preparing this new service offering.  The call-center version of Clixme represents a vehicle for us to penetrate deeper into the enterprise market.”

By subscribing and paying a monthly fee, call-center managers gain access to a suite of features designed to help them monitor, analyze and manage the calls delivered via Clixme.

Bad elevator background music aside, you can find more information on their website.

The company recently reorganized in June to focus more on VoIP services.

Canadian-based Vonage announced today that they have expanded the availability of their flat-rate service into 19 additional commuties in Quebec, allowing them to reach another 700,000 potential customers.

A recent survey by Decima Research showed that 56% of Quebec residents think that bundled packages benefit the service provider more than they benefit the consumer, and they just may be right, but that hasn’t stopped Vonage from rolling ahead.

Potential customers that sign up can keep their telephone number, and choose from a variety of packages to suit their individual needs.

• Orgismo introduces everyone to the not-yet-released Solar and VoIP Disk from A-DATA. It’s sleek styling could take multi-tasking to a whole new level.
• The VoIP & Gadgets Blog talks clones, highlighting the Polypower VRM0-Sxx and other to-be-released must-have gadgetry.
• VoIP Central tackles Bluemaxx’s second phase roll-out, into more of the Darling Downs area.
• The VoIP Watch has the trifecta of the official announcement of Nokia’s N80i, VoIP regulation in the UK and Skype’s reorganization.
• VoIP Now does their very own mini roundup, and chats about National Convergence’s little niche.
• IP Telephony waxes rhapsodic about the state of affairs on VoIP in Florida.

American Telecom Services and Broadband National have joined forces to offer customers a “one-box solution” for VoIP and high speed Internet service.

Customers who buy an Internet phone from ATS will receive instructions on how to sign up for Broadband National’s ISP marketplace service, including information on the services available in their area and the skinny on different pricing and service plans.

ATS gets a fee from Broadband National for each service account activated and will share a percentage of that with retail partners. This is the first time such a bundled VoIP/phone package has been made available.

American Telecom Services CEO Bruce Hahn said in a statement yesterday, “American Telecom Services wants consumers to be able to take advantage of the benefits and savings of Internet calling. Our arrangement with Broadband National contributes to this by offering every eligible retail customer who currently has no service or only dial-up access the option of purchasing high speed services from the broadband provider of their choice. We believe that through this offering, many consumers will realize that the combination of broadband Internet and Internet phone service will save them hundreds of dollars each year compared to dial-up Internet and traditional phone service. In the end, they will not only have a faster Internet connection for data, but also far more calling features than they ever had before with their new Internet telephone service.”

• Battery of VoIP patents issued recently
• Worldwide VoIP gear revenue to hit $12B in 2010
• IETF goes deeper into VoIP peering
• Will BellSouth let the AT&T deal go south?
• BofA on track to install 180,000 VoIP phones
• SPOTLIGHT: Wireless carriers to trim bandwidth?
• ALSO NOTED: U.K. IT execs pretty much ignore VoIP; AT&T DSLAM explodes; and much more…

TalkSwitch just added two new products to their PBX telephone system line, the 280VS ($1095) and 284VS ($1395). These IP PBXs can accommodate two incoming telephone lines and provides eight local extensions that can be configured as IP or analog, along with ten remote extensions. The 284VS even supports four VoIP trunks.

TalkSwitch President and CEO, Jan Scheeren said in a statement, “These new systems nicely augment the existing family of TalkSwitch telephone systems. They use only two incoming phone lines, helping customers reduce monthly expenses, while still providing the rich features and customer-friendly design that characterize all TalkSwitch systems. And we have made them available at a price that is unprecedented for a fully hybrid IP PBX. TalkSwitch has become the most respected name in small business telephony because we consistently deliver great value. These VS products continue that tradition.”

The new products work well for small businesses and residences, giving important features with a minimal investment, and they include the TalkSwitch software version 4.0 for easy configuration to either analog or IP.

In business since 1990, TalkSwitch is headquartered in Canada.

Circuit City has teamed up with Vonage to offer customers an instant $200 gift card to use towards any in-store purchase when they activate Vonage’s VoIP-based telephone service and sign a one year contract. And if that isn’t enough, Circuit City will also be offering some Vonage-compatible products free after a mail-in rebate. Sweet!

Vonage’s President, Michael Tribolet said, “The holiday season just got merrier for Vonage subscribers. New subscribers not only get Vonage’s flat rate, feature-rich telephone service so they can call all their friends and wish them happy holidays, but they can also pick up some great gifts at Circuit City.”

Circuit City’s Senior Vice President and General Merchandise Manager, John Kelly said, “This exclusive promotion gives our customers a great reason to sign up for Vonage at Circuit City and get a head-start on their holiday shopping. Our Product Specialists are ready to answer questions that customers may have about Vonage and help them sign up for the service in-store.”

The offer is available for customers until December 2 in US stores.

Of course, this does  little for existing Vonage customers and is unlikely to do much to change what commentators are currently saying about Vonage (and other VoIP providers).

The new RTX Cordless DualPhone 3088, to be released on December 1, is the latest handset to eradicate the need for a computer. The unit will work for both traditional wired telephony and Skype-based Internet calls, giving the user the option to choose between the two when a call is made.

Priced at $206/USD, it allows for 10 hours of talk time and 140 hours of standby. The LCD display of the phone will even let you see which of your Skype contacts are online. Skype sees this DualPhone as their way of always trying something new and say that over 100 million people have downloaded their software. The truer testament to their success would be how many people are paying for their service though.

There is a wonderful, very thorough road test on the new phone that you can check out here. It will be available in Europe and the Skype Online store on Friday.

Here come the patent attorneys. BusinessWeek is noticing that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been issuing dozens of VoIP patents lately–maybe 100 in the last couple of months alone. We haven’t had a chance to look at, well, any of them, but beneficiaries include Texas Instruments, Motorola, Nokia, Qualcomm, Nortel, Broadcomm, AOL and DoCoMo. The magazine suggests that the current bumper crop makes sense, given that VoIP began to hit mainstream radar screens in 2004. It takes a year or so for a patent to wend its way through the bureaucracy.

For more information about recent patent awards:

- read this article from BusinessWeek

Also: Comcast recently dodged the patent lawyer bullet.