VoIP Now

Yahoo Messenger Adds VoIP Feature

Earlier this week, Yahoo acquired voice over IP provider Dialpad Communications. Dialpad Communications officials are saying that its software offerings will be used by Yahoo in their voice communications products as well as instant messaging application. Dialpad is also going to be adding their PSTN feature to Yahoo Messenger (which uses the SIP standard), allowing users to make direct calls to landline or mobile phones from their PCs. According to internetnews.com:

Vincent Paquet, Dialpad vice president of business development and marketing, would not comment on the price tag for the acquisition or when the company expects its product to be integrated into the Yahoo Messenger voice service. He did say the company's 40 employees would be relocating to Yahoo's facility in Sunnyvale, Calif.

"We're very excited that we'll be scaling our IP-based technology for the benefit of millions of Yahoo users," he said. "It will bring the ability to bring IP-to-PSTN connectivity for current and future Yahoo services."

Read more: Yahoo Buys Into VoIP

Telephone Carrier Starts VoIPing

It appears as though the telephone companies are starting to catch on with their VoIP competitors.  It has just been recently announced that Texas Livingston Telephone is going to start offering VoIP services to their customers and bypass third-party providers.  They choose this route so they could continue to service those who wished to upgrade to VoIP connectivity.  If they had gone with third party vendors, there customer base could have been compromised and decline in profit.  Before they could make this transition however, LivTel has been upgrading their networks in order to support video feeds and until recently, voice. I guess if you can't beat em', join em'.  According to PR NewsWire:

"We could have turned on VoIP over a year ago," says Walzel, "when we installed our IP Video network. But we were very reluctant to just hand our customer list over to a third-party VoIP provider. We've worked 100 years to build relationships with those customers.

Read more at: LivTel Offers Its Own VoIP

VoIP Image Still Needs Work

Although the number of people who know about VoIP has increased significantly, many are simply choosing to not use it.  Some have attributed this to the fact that companies have failed to show the consumer that VoIP better than a regular phone telephone line.  The recent regulation on the E911 also has consumers questioning the possible dangers of switching to the new technology.  Until the industry can quell these fears, people will continue to stick with what works and not upgrade to VoIP systems.  According to GlobeAndMail.com:

“The industry has made progress in clearing up some areas of consumer confusion, but interest in VoIP hasn't grown,” said Lynne Bartos, senior vice-president and head of Ipsos-Insight's Cable, Media & Entertainment Practice.

Read more at: Americans aware of VoIP but don't actually use it

More Security Needed

With new technology comes added risks, and many believe that more needs to be done to help VoIP become as secure as it can.  Some believe that without universal security measures emplaced by VoIP vendors; it will never truly be a secure technology.  Voice traffic on data networks puts many at risk of eavesdropping and fraud.  However, a group of 25,000 members of the VOIPSA, or VoIP Security Alliance are dedicated to make VoIP a more secure medium.  According to PRNewswire:

"VoIP handsets are simply Internet-capable computers disguised as telephones. They are subject to the same security threats as other web- connected devices. Until the VoIP world gets serious about security, industry growth risks being stunted," says Info-Tech Research Group Senior Research Analyst Carmi Levy.

Read more at: Analyst Firm Identifies Security Gaps in VoIP Networks

Full Speed Ahead By 2008

Nostradamus has spoken and VoIP will explode by 2008.

And by Nostradamus I mean Peter Hall, director or research at Ovum.  He and his team have observed businesses and their usual 10 year cycle with telephone technology.  Therefore, businesses will be ripe to switch to the cheaper more robust features of VoIP by 2008.  Additionally, by that time many of the vendors will be in their forth or fifth generations of products which means less bugs for companies to deal with.  How much is VoIP expected to dominate the market by this time?  Try 50 to 60 percent.  According to Silicon.com:

"IP telephony has reached the mainstream. The technology is robust. The number of vendors is considerable. The business case is becoming more sophisticated."

Read more at: Ovum 'VoIP mainstream in buisnesses by 2008'

Linux Meets VoIP

It's like watching a small child grow up right before your eyes.  First it starts walking, the parents make rules for its behavior, and then it graduates to bigger and better things.  Well, I think that this comparison fits quite well with VoIP.  As for graduating you may ask?  Well, VoX Communications has just unveiled that they have created the first ever Linux based server cluster.  The company boasts that the server cluster can hold 10,000 customers, but is hopeful with additional clusters that the number could grow to a several million.  Finally, something really stable we can all sink our teeth into.  According to ZDNet:

"The equipment cost in this initial deployment was less than $100,000, and we expect the equipment required to support each incremental 10,000 subscribers to be less than $100,000," said Paul Riss, CEO of VoX.

Read more at: First-ever Linux-based VoIP server cluster eyed