April 27, 2007
The VoIP Week in Review

By Spencer D. Chin
TMCnet Web Editor

This week’s VoIP news reflected the industry’ continued growth and advances in VoIP technology and applications. But much of the attention continues to focus on one of the VoIP industry’s best known companies—VoIP service provider Vonage (News - Alert), which remains locked in a bitter court battle with Verizon over several patents.
 
Unlike the past few weeks when all the news surrounding Vonage was negative, the beleaguered VoIP service provider may be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. Early in the week, the U.S. Court of Appeals gave Vonage a permanent stay of an earlier court injunction that would have barred the company from signing up new customers.
 
Although Vonage’s fate remains in the hands of the U.S. Court of Appeals, which is hearing both sides of the patent dispute, the stay has given the company a temporary lease on life. In an attempt to restore the confidence of both shareholders and customers, Vonage wasted no time, announcing a public relations campaign the company said was designed to educate and mobilize consumers about preserving the freedom to choose their phone service provider.
 
More likely, Vonage is using the freedom of choice trump card to rally support in its court case with Verizon. While Vonage has taken repeated blows over the past month and faces a formidable task in appealing the March court decision calling for it to pay Verizon $58 million in damages, Verizon has been quiet, apparently confident Vonage will lose its appeal.
 
Asides from the latest Vonage saga, there was other news. VoIP phone system company ShoreTel (News - Alert) enhanced its IP telephony software, which the company claims offers simpler administration and enhanced productivity. One key improvement was escalation notification, which allows a system administrator to define whether an incoming call should ring through to certain devices - and in what order - before switching over to voicemail. For example, an administrator can program this feature so that a user’s incoming calls ring on each number for a specified period of time before switching to the next phone or device, and finally before switching to voicemail.
 
Also on the product front, APconnections introduced Net Equalizer, a plug-and-play appliance designed to provide bandwidth control for large enterprises, office parks, university campuses, service providers, and any other IP installation where large numbers of users typically connect to the Internet at once.
 
According to APconnections, Net Equalizer has the capacity to detect congestion and reprioritize traffic as it flows to the Internet, ensuring VoIP calls are given right of way so that call quality remains at its best.
 
“With the NetEqualizer, products such as Vonage phones can remain operational even during peak times of bandwidth usage over a VLAN,” said Art Reisman, CEO and co-founder of APconnections. “This new technology will prove especially useful for operators providing Internet service to diverse groups of users such as in office parks and municipalities.”
 
Test equipment and solutions provider Tektronix released the latest version of its Spectra2 product, Spectra2 5.2. The solution gives VoIP network developers a complete diagnostic test solution for network operators developing platforms and services for VoIP, IP Multimedia Subsystem (News - Alert), and converged network environments.
 
Spectra2.5.2 is designed to offer a single box IMS test and generation solution that operates at the protocol depth for core IMS testing, according to Tektronix. A SIP dynamic parameter management feature positions the product as a testing platform for VoIP and IMS environments. It delivers improved testing capabilities for converged networks, including the ability to monitor and generate ISDN , and to perform multi-protocol call tracing and failed call analysis.
 
In VoIP services, hosted VoIP platform provider GlobalTouch Telecom (News - Alert) adapted its well-known VoIP-in-a-Box solution for the prepaid space. By modifying its solution to accommodate the nuances of prepaid services, GlobalTouch created a platform based on a proven one for a new market and a new customer base.
 
GlobalTouch is betting on prepaid VoIP being more conducive to customer retention than traditional prepaid phone cards, largely because of the Web-based self-provisioning and self-management tools. Through the web, users can activate their account, retrieve voicemail, recharge balances, and perform other account maintenance functions more easily than with a prepaid phone card, making it less likely they will defect to an alternative provider.
 
If there’s any doubt about the rapid growth of VoIP, one needs to look no further than a couple of market studies by In-Stat (News - Alert) and AMI Partners Inc. In-Stat said VoIP technology has helped trigger an almost two-fold increase of the number of cable telephony subscribers in the U.S. last year, while AMI Partners Inc. projected that hosted business VoIP for the SMB segment will reach $416 million this year, compared to $165 million in 2005.
 
Spencer Chin is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
 
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