GENBAND Broadens Portfolio with Introduction of Two New IP Gateways
G2 Compact Media Gateway™ and G9 Converged Media Gateway™ Builds Upon GENBAND’s Open Softswitch Strategy for Wireless and Wireline Carriers Worldwide
June 12, 2007, Plano, TX - GENBAND™ Inc., a market-leading developer of next-generation IP gateways and application solutions, today announced two new highly-flexible wireline and wireless media gateways that are designed to work with any softswitch or IMS core and deliver a wide array of solutions for telecommunications operators of all types and sizes.
The G9 Converged Media Gateway provides a new market standard for price-performance, flexibility, and scalability for mobile and fixed line carriers, while GENBAND’s G2 Compact Media Gateway is a compact and hardened media gateway providing Packet Line and Trunking Media Gateway capabilities for fixed line and cable carriers. Both the G2 and G9 products are natural compliments for GENBAND’s G6 Universal Media Gateway™. All three gateway offerings support GENBAND’s open softswitch architecture that enables carriers to utilize the call control of their choice, whether for fixed line, cable, or mobile applications.
“With the introduction of the G2 and G9, GENBAND possess one of the broadest gateway portfolios for the fixed, mobile and cable markets. Our gateways deliver 2nd generation - flexibility, scale, performance, robustness and economics,” said Charles Vogt, president and CEO of GENBAND. “Today, one fourth of the top 100 global service providers count on GENBAND and their business partners for their IP gateway and application solutions. GENBAND is now even better positioned to help service providers transform their legacy networks to IP-based networks.”
The G9 Converged Media Gateway
GENBAND’s G9 Converged Media Gateway scales up to tens of thousands of ports and supports a wide range of interfaces and features for unlicensed mobile access (UMA), UMTS, GSM and CDMA 3GPP and 3GPP2 wireless networks for both access (RNC) and core (R4 MSC), and wireline and converged wireless/wireline network operators. Its open H.248 interface and extensive feature set support 3GPP Release 4/5/6 and all major wireless and wireline IP, ATM and TDM network protocols. The G9 platform is a true second-generation media gateway platform that builds upon the company’s first-generation system, the 8000 Media Gateway. Optimized for IP network deployment, the G9 platform represents a significant enhancement of GENBAND’s worldwide market share-leading 8000 platform. The G9 also shares its software with the GENBAND 8000 platform software which has been field-hardened globally for 6 years across over 22 million ports. Its support of IP, TDM, and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) architectures makes the G9 platform ideal for operators transitioning gradually to IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) networks without requiring the costly replacement of existing network equipment.
The G2 Compact Media Gateway
GENBAND’s new G2 Compact Media Gateway is built to serve ILEC, RLEC, PTT, CLEC, and cable networks with the ability to simultaneously support multiple service architectures including IMS, SIP application servers, and softswitch-based networks. Compact and hardened, the G2 platform is ideal for deployment in smaller locations, including outdoor cabinets. Supporting 24 to 720 simultaneous DS0 sessions per chassis, the G2’s Emergency Standalone (ESA) feature ensures that legacy and next generation access networks maintain intrasystem and emergency calling if softswitch communications to endpoints are disrupted. As a Packet Line Gateway, the G2 product allows SIP application servers, softswitches, and IMS core products to provide call control and features to customer lines on legacy access platforms like digital loop carriers and certain Class 5 line frames including DCO and EWSD line frames. As a trunking gateway, the G2 platform enables circuit-to-packet media conversion, CALEA, E911, security, and other services using H.248, MGCP, or SIP-based call control.
Both the G9 Converged Media Gateway and the G2 Compact Media Gateway will be debuted at the NXTcomm tradeshow, June 19th - 21st, in Chicago; GENBAND booth number 2856.
About GENBAND
GENBAND is a leading supplier of next generation IP gateway and application solutions. These high-performance gateway and application platforms enable fixed wireline, mobile, and cable network service providers to rapidly deploy new multimedia services. Headquartered in Plano, Texas, GENBAND has research and development facilities in Texas, China, and India. Additional information is available at
www.genband.com.
M5 Networks Announces 600th Client, 100 Million Phone Calls and 1,000 Locations
M5 Marks Three Major Milestones with Addition of the West Point Association of Graduates as 600th Client
New York, NY (PRWEB) June 12, 2007 — M5 Networks, the market leader in delivering phone system functionality as a service, today announced it has achieved three major milestones. M5 has added its 600th client, the West Point Association of Graduates (WPAOG), the alumni association of the United States Military Academy (USMA). In addition, M5 now serves over 1,000 client locations throughout the country and has placed more than 100 million phone calls in its seven year history.
The West Point AOG’s staff of 75 employees benefits from M5’s recently-launched, innovative “Voice as a Service” model. In particular, M5’s Embedded Continuity, which goes beyond basic business continuity, was a major factor in attracting the organization to M5. “It is very comforting to know that we are prepared with a plan in place to redirect our phone calls in case of an emergency situation,” said Tom Mulyca, VP of Information Systems for West Point Association of Graduates. “Non-stop dial tone from M5 ensures that we not only have protection in critical situations, but also allows us to improve overall productivity within the organization.”
Established in 1869, the WPAOG is the alumni association of the USMA. As a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation, the WPAOG engages in philanthropic pursuits and is dedicated to promoting the welfare of the USMA, supporting and serving its graduates.
“Our goal, first and foremost, is to serve West Point’s graduates, who are based all over the country and the world. M5 provides a reliable means of communications, which helps us to provide graduates with effective services and gives us the time and resources to better serve alumni,” said Mulyca. “M5’s client focus and service orientation is by far the best we’ve encountered from a service provider.”
M5 recently pioneered a new paradigm for business communications, “Voice as a Service,” which is driving the company’s explosive growth. Within one year, M5’s staff has nearly doubled, and the customer base has increased by 35 percent. In the first five years of operation, M5 grew its revenues by 4,445 percent.
Counting more than 100 million phone calls and serving over 1,000 locations across the U.S., M5 was recently named by AMI-Partners as one of the largest providers of hosted VoIP in the country and one of the first providers businesses consider for hosted VoIP services. M5 boasts one of the highest average seat numbers per location when compared with other major hosted VoIP providers, while maintaining the strictest SLAs, including 99.99 percent location uptime and a less than five percent annual churn rate.
“For the first seven years in M5’s history, we were the poster child for rock-solid, quality business communications, offering the best hosted VoIP service available on the market,” said Dan Hoffman, president & CEO, M5 Networks. “But that was the beginning. We believe Voice as a Service will transform the way mid-size companies do business, and we are poised to ride the wave of growth over the next seven years.”
About the West Point Association of Graduates
The West Point Association of Graduates is the alumni association of the United States Military Academy. Its mission is to serve West Point and its graduates. The West Point Association of Graduates was founded in 1869 to reunite Academy graduates who found themselves on opposing sides during the American Civil War. Today, the Association continues to strengthen the bonds of the “Long Gray Line” through assistance to graduates, West Point Societies, and USMA Classes worldwide. Located in the recently completed Herbert Hall Alumni Center, the Association is the focal point for returning alumni. As a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation, its philanthropic pursuits maintain a margin of excellence for Cadets attending the Academy. For more information, please visit http://www.aogusma.org/.
About M5 Networks
M5 Networks is the market leader in “Voice as a Service,” a breakthrough solution for business phone communications. Industry experts tell us that in ten years, no business will have a phone system - they will acquire phone system capabilities as an on-demand, managed service over the Internet - in other words, Voice as a Service. M5 pioneered Voice as a Service in 2000. Today we serve a rapidly growing base of mid-sized businesses. Our solution is distinguished by the rich capabilities and unmatched service that you would expect from an industry leader.
M5 Networks has received considerable recognition and was named to the 2006 Inc. 500 (#272) and both the 2006 Deloitte Technlology Fast 500 (#54) and New York Technology Fast 50 (#5). M5 was recognized by CRN as one of the top 15 Key VoIP Players in 2007 and received Frost & Sullivan’s 2004 Entrepreneurial Company Award. M5 has also been included on the Pulver 100 list for five consecutive years and Fierce VoIP’s Fierce 15 list in 2005 in addition to receiving numerous other accolades.
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS EXPANDS VOICE OVER IP PORTFOLIO WITH NEW ADDITION TO IP PHONE PRODUCT SUITE
Flexible, Cost Effective Platform Offers Reduced Bill of Materials and Quick Time to Market for IP Phone Manufacturers
DALLAS (June 12, 2007) - Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) [NYSE: TXN] today announced its newest IP phone platform, enabling manufacturers to deliver cost effective IP phones for the low-end enterprise, small and medium business (SMB), and residential markets. This new addition to TI’s IP phone product suite leverages the company’s extensive experience in the Voice over IP (VoIP) industry and is powered by TI’s digital signal processors (DSP), enabling real-time signal processing, low-power consumption and tremendous flexibility for next-generation VoIP devices. The TNETV2502 offers manufacturers a complete turnkey system for developing cost effective IP phones with up to a 50 percent reduction in the bill of materials (BOM).
According to recent In-Stat research, revenues for VoIP semiconductors will grow from just over $600 million in 2006 to $2.63 billion in 2010. IP phones will account for 60 percent of total VoIP semiconductor sales in 2010, demonstrating the viability of delivering products to support this growing market.
The TNETV2502 incorporates TI’s TMS320C55xTM DSP generation and a software license from Adaptive Digital Technologies Incorporated (Adaptive Digital) for the IP phone software package. Adaptive Digital, a long-time member of the TI DSP Third Party Network, has over ten years of experience developing and supporting VoIP software on TI DSPs, including the TMS320C5000TM and TMS320C6000TM platforms. By collaborating with Adaptive Digital on the TNETV2502 platform, TI can quickly and effectively deliver a low-cost IP phone solution to its OEM and ODM customers, offering them a reduced time to market and decreased BOM. At the same time, the performance and flexibility of TI’s DSPs coupled with Adaptive Digital’s software allows manufacturers to deliver unmatched scalability to easily meet the evolving feature and standards requirements of the VoIP market.
“We understand that for those business subscribers and residential users looking to capitalize on the cost savings of VoIP, low-end IP phones, like those based on the TNETV2502, are ideal to meet their requirements,” said Brian McCarthy, president of Adaptive Digital. “As part of our continuing legacy with TI, we are proud to offer to manufacturers around the world a VoIP solution that can be customized and quickly deployed to meet the needs and demands of their customer base.”
By utilizing a TNETV2502-based IP phone, small and medium enterprises can easily take advantage of the benefits of VoIP without making a significant cost and time investment in more expensive VoIP handsets. Low-end IP phones provide the features and performance certain business and residential subscribers require without significant power consumption or the advanced functionality of more complex devices. These IP phones are typically characterized as having basic phone features with one voice port, which is one channel of G.711 or G.729AB, and basic SIP signaling and call control capabilities. Conferencing and other supplementary services are usually handled in the network, and additional codecs are optional.
“We are committed to constantly expanding our product portfolio from low-end to high, delivering the right DSP-based VoIP technology for customers of all sizes and all requirements, with the ideal mix of features and performance to best meet their needs,” said Fred Zimmerman, director of VoIP customer premises solutions for TI. “With the TNETV2502, TI is targeting a market segment that is often overlooked while delivering the benefits of our robust and field-proven VoIP solutions to business and residential subscribers looking to experience the many benefits of VoIP technology.”
TI’s TNETV2502 includes the silicon, software and a complete reference design, offering manufacturers all the tools needed to develop IP phones. The software features run on TI’s popular DSP/BIOSTM operating system, reducing the amount of royalties that may be necessary for manufacturers developing IP phones with the platform. TI also offers indemnified codecs, further easing manufacturers challenges for delivering low-end IP phones to the market. TI’s TNETV2502 reference design is also the first low-cost IP phone solution from TI incorporating the latest Power-over-Ethernet technology, which allows a phone to be powered directly from a standard Ethernet cable instead of an AC power supply. General availability of the TNETV2502 is expected in 3Q07.
As the leading provider of VoIP solutions, TI has shipped over 500 million VoIP ports worldwide for the IP phone, customer premise equipment (CPE) gateway and high-density infrastructure markets. TI works with leading IP phone vendors worldwide and has the largest installed customer base and portfolio of field-hardened solutions to meet the demands of the growing VoIP market.
Imagine Having Internet, VoIP Services in a Natural Disaster
TAMPA, Fla., June 12 — Imagine having Internet, VoIP and even fax service during, and after, a natural disaster for your small to mid-size business. It’s now possible thanks to Asevotech’s Disaster Lease Program.
The demand for Internet services after a disaster has led many large corporations to invest in satellite technology. It requires huge capital that small business owners simply lack. In order to facilitate the same demand of small to midsized companies, Asevotech created the Disaster Lease Program (DLP). They offer the same benefits that large companies have, but without the large capital investment since the IT and satellites are leased.
Asevotech CEO Wes Holden explains, “There are many places where you can buy a satellite dish and services, but that process is extremely expensive and often out of the reach of small businesses, or even first responders, like police and fire departments in smaller communities. Today there are only two places where a company can turn for leasing, with Asevotech being one of them.”
And why is leasing satellite technology important? As Holden says, “Generally when hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons or other natural disaster devastates an area the Internet providers are down anywhere from one to six months. This can be fatal to the small and midsize companies who desperately need these kinds of services. Companies that gamble on waiting to buy or rent this equipment find these devices hard to come by, even in the first week. By the time they realize they have to have the equipment and devices to survive financially, it’s too late. Everyone else has bought it all.”
The program works through enclosed trailer mounted or pole/stand mounted units. Each satellite unit is then equipped to provide wireless broadband Internet. Voice-over-internet protocol (”VoIP”) telephone and fax service are available as an optional service with each satellite unit, handling one to eight voice lines per unit. Cell phone repeaters for Nextel and Cingular networks are also available as an optional item. These units then have generators and outdoor wireless networks so they can continue to run even after a disaster.
“Instead of buying all this equipment outright, we lease it to the business at a substantial savings to them,” says Holden. “They sign a contract of three months up to 24 months and pay a deposit based on the options they’d like to have. Then they pay a monthly fee. If a disaster does strike, this way they can continue their operations since it’s all done via satellite. So essentially, we offer a guaranteed service that will provide business continuity in the event of a disaster. Many businesses turn to us, like insurance companies, financial companies, property management companies, municipalities and emergency services.”
The key, as Holden explains, is not to wait until just prior to, or after, a disaster. The process is complex so time is needed to make sure a small business is secure. “There is a three week build out period from contract signing to availability, so it is essential to sign up as early as possible for these units. But the wonderful thing is once you have the technology in place, and Mother Nature does her worst, your business can still be covered.”
About Asevotech: Asevotech is an expert in handling disaster management. They also specialize in custom software development, equipment leasing, business analysis, project management, data management and web hosting. A privately owned company located in South Tampa, Florida, Asevotech is a Microsoft Certified Business Partner helping small to large size companies with IT needs.
This morning I chose to spend some time cleaning about 1,000 e-mails up and as such didn’t really have time to add color or commentary to anything happening in the industry. Yesterday, while driving I went through a few thousand more. It is just amazing how fast e-mail piles up when you are at trade shows. Tom Keating sent an e-mail recently about declaring e-mail bankruptcy which is what happens when you give up an e-mail account because you can’t deal with the influx of spam. Tom recently declared e-mail bankruptcy and switched e-mail addresses. Now I am on the way to my first meeting. More to come later.
The green conference I discussed here a few days ago has officially become Green Technology World™ to be held Sept 11-12, 2007 in the Los Angeles Convention Center. For more information please check out this press release. We are very excited about this event and we believe this new expo is a great way to show just how incredibly green many of today’s IP communications and collaboration solutions are. In addition, expect this conference to include coverage on all technology which can be considered green. If it reduces your corporate carbon footprint or reduces gas or jet fuel consumption it will be discussed. In addition you will see examples of technology which reduces toxic waste and allows the construction of environmentally friendly buildings. Stay tuned for more.
Tags: carbon footprint, environment, green, ip communications, telepresence, videoconferencing, voip
Search Technorati: carbon footprint, environment, green, ip communications, telepresence, videoconferencing, voip
Due to a spat between Google and eBay, the latter has pulled domestic ads from the former. This decision will have a negative impact on the earnings of both companies. The argument is over Google Checkout and why eBay is not allowing this form of payment in their auction network. This could turn ugly. Disclosure: I own shares in both and if I take off my writer hat and put on my investor hat, this is not good news. Read more here.
Tags: checkout, ebay, google, paypal
Search Technorati: checkout, ebay, google, paypal
I mentioned a few months back the lack of a keyboard could be the Achilles heal of the Apple iPhone. Now the NY Times has an article on the same topic. Russell Shaw mentions this in his blog today and has a poll asking if people care about having a physical keyboard. I believe for the casual user the lack of a keyboard is bearable. For the serious e-mail user like yours truly I am pretty sure there is no way I will give up the mechanical sensation of pressing keys. Then again, I haven’t seen the iPhone yet. Perhaps the iPhone is such a good device in other respects; I will be willing to overlook this shortcoming. In the mean time, it would be great if you could take Russell’s poll so I can see what my (and his) readers think.
Tags: apple, iphone, mechanical keyboard, russell shaw
Search Technorati: apple, iphone, mechanical keyboard, russell shaw
The TMC Green Blog has officially launched. When you think about it… Blogs are about as green a communications medium as there is. Enjoy!
Tags: green blog
Search Technorati: green blog