h.323 Buggy

h.323, which I picked on recently, saying that it’s not what SIP is has been found buggy again. Face it, h.323 is an old technology which has been eclipsed by a much more robust and capable protocol, SIP (session initiation protocol). Many of the older VoIP companies out there are still using h.323. Some are … Read more

3 Goes Global

I’m always keen to what Level3 is up to. Now they are terminating VoIP calls internationally. At the same time, once left for dead Global Crossing have announced a deal to make PSTN to IP telephony calls work more easily within their network. Both of these carriers have lots of bandwidth, numerous POPs and customers. … Read more

Why The Slowdown

I’m fighting a cold, and to be candid, most of the stories I’m seeing about VoIP the past few days have been lame rewrites of what we already know. The most exciting news is coming from Jeff Pulver, who on his blog, is getting ready to push his own legislation proposal to the FCC. If … Read more

Vonage Inside

Intel Inside. Now Vonage Inside. Today Vonage announced a deal with Texas Instruments to bring Vonage to the chip level. This announcement means that you can eliminate the ATA made by Cisco or Motorola and skip the need for a router. Much like Intel’s efforts to put Wi-Fi in laptops and soon desktops using Centrino … Read more

NetTaps For VoIP

Well, you could have seen this coming. The Justice Department and the FBI are now moving aggressively on the ability to tap VoIP calls. While some will consider this an invasion of privacy, it is all about Homeland Security and criminal investigation. Basically, the average person, who is not breaking any laws has nothing to … Read more

More On Video over IP

Yesterday Packet8 announced a Video over SIP play. Today, out comes a news account based around the In-Stat Report on Video over IP and its future. It’s a bright one and show that the merging of streaming media technology, instant messaging and IP telephony is not that far off. If voice was an 1800’s era … Read more

Pump Up The Volume

Probe Group is one of the more respected, and in my mind, more accurate research and consulting groups in the Telecom space. While Yankee, IDC and Gartner may usually get more publicity, from personal experience, Probe seems to have the analysts with more hands-on expertise and more focused insight. Their recent report would seem to … Read more

The Skype’s The Limit

I’ve been playing around the last week with Skype, the free P2P VoIP service from the people who brought KaZaA to the Internet. While it is not nearly as good in sound quality as Vonage or iConnectHere has proven to be, it is Free. As a result, I tend to look at Skype at this … Read more

Level Three Puts The Heat on FCC

Level3 Communications (LVLT) has put their foot forward, joining other VoIP pioneers like Jeff Pulver of Free World DialUp in asking the FCC for decisions on the whole idea of Access and Termination charges related to VoIP and PSTN calls. In making the request to the FCC, Level3 has basically said–we’re getting ready to play … Read more

Show Me Your’s and I’ll Show You Mine

Last year Vonage was out in force at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). This year it seems the competition will be too. In a business where “I can do better than you” and a “can you top this” mentality rages, Packet8 Networks has fired a shot across the bow for all VoIP carriers to follow. … Read more