Sam Rozenfeld

FCC’s VoIP Regulation Dilemma

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telephone

1835, “apparatus for signaling by musical notes” (devised by Sudré in 1828), from Fr. téléphone (c.1830), from télé- “far” (see tele-) + phone “sound” (see fame). Also used of other apparatus early 19c., including “instrument similar to a foghorn for signaling from ship to ship” (1844). The electrical communication tool was first described in modern form by P.Reis (1861); developed by Bell, and so called by him from 1876. The verb is attested from 1878.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has become a mature technology that allows individuals to place phone calls using the Internet Protocol. VoIP utilizes the Internet infrastructure to make voice and video calls as opposed to the traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN) that has been in place for more than a century. VoIP service is less expensive to provide and operate as compared to traditional telephony. Another advantage of VoIP is that a subscriber can make a voice or video call from any global location with a broadband Internet connection. Modern VoIP telephony evolutionizes the boundaries of telephony by adding voice, presence management, chat and other services and by then embedding it into many business applications that are run on computers.

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Launching VARs and ISVs into a VoIP Cloud

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If memory serves me correctly, five years ago, we used to position VoIP versus traditional PSTN-based dialtone. Then came the hosted concept and theme focus has turned to an on-premise VoIP versus Hosted VoIP. Today we are seeing hosted PBX service providers beginning to further differentiate themselves by targeting niche vertical markets by building on their application integration capabilities.

Hosted PBX price wars are continuing to heat up for the fourth year. The biggest battleground appear to be the growing small business market where integration capabilities coupled with soft entry costs are playing a dominant role in SMB’s choice of a unified communications platform. Most small businesses prefer to gradually increase their operating expenses while gaining immediate access to the critical unified communications technology rather than incurring a large one-time capital expense.

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Delivering VoIP over Mobile Wireless

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Both VoIP and mobile wireless broadband are relatively new technologies. With the invention of 3G wireless data network – an opportunity to make free or near free calls from your VoIP phone had become more of a reality than a concept. The war between operators of cellular networks and VoIP providers has ended in an amicable truce with the carriers finally realizing that the bulk of their revenues will be coming from data usage and shifting to the usage-based billing model for their data plans. VoIP Hosted PBX users have been jumping on the bandwagon by making calls over Wi-Fi or the carrier’s wireless data connections on all kinds of smart phone platforms.

VoIP service providers, while reluctant to even mention 3G mobile data network as a somewhat reliable means of enterprise VoIP communications, nevertheless are coming to accept the fact that businesses begin to realize the advantages of readily available mobile networks in order to benefit from truly geo independent voice service. There is even a new term for it: Vo3G which stands for Voice over 3G.

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Hosted PBX 3.2 moving into Alpha testing next week

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We are excited to be wrapping up feature development for 3.2. There is still a lot of testing and work to be done before this version makes it to public release, but there are a lot of exciting new features in here. Display parking lot number on call status page Improved Parking Lot system Integrated … Read more

Boundaries of Hosted VoIP Services

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In my previous posts I had touched on the differences between traditional PBX and a Hosted VoIP service. Business VoIP solutions today come in all shapes and colors and also, unfortunately, under all kinds of names: Managed Hosted PBX, Hosted PBX, IP PBX, Virtual PBX etc. The names are used interchangeably as if they all mean the same thing causing confusion among buyers as to which product to use in what situation. Today I will try to explain what all these seemingly similar names mean and what is typically included and not included in each service, what the differences are between managed and unmanaged hosted services and where the boundaries of service provider’s responsibility lie in each case.

Not all managed services are created equal. Management responsibilities range from simple moves, adds and changes to fully outsourced management of the entire infrastructure of VoIP. Let’s take a closer look at some of those service tags:

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Role of Hosted PBX in Disaster Recovery Planning

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Recent events in Japan bring me back to the subject of service survivability and business continuity in the event of a natural disaster. Japan is heavily reliant on VoIP for its telephony. In a way, this has been another significant test of IP communications in a disaster and it appears that the outcome paints fairly … Read more

Hosted PBX vs. Virtual PBX ?

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When it comes to Google searches on keywords such as “Business Phone Service” – one can get lost in the myriad of options: “PBX, VoIP, Hosted PBX, Virtual PBX”… . One of the challenges facing entrepreneurs and business executives looking for new communications provider is having an ability to understand the difference between technology solutions. … Read more

Chat Service added to Hosted PBX 3.2

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Greetings, As I mentioned in my previous blog post about 3.2, one of the new features that we wanted to add to version 3.2 of the Hosted PBX was a corporate chat service. I am pleased to announce that the implementation of this service has been completed, so we will definately be bringing this new … Read more