Internet Protocol telephony news:

Trolltech, a vendor of technologies that make advanced software faster to build and easier to use, today announced that its Qtopia software for Linux-based embedded products is the application development platform for Leadtek's IP broadband videophone, XTP 8830. Leadtek Research Inc. works in video and IP technologies.

The H.264-based Videophone XTP8830 uses H.323/SIP protocol and offers high performance with good quality video communication. This product, its makers claim, "is capable of supporting today's demanding requirements in triple play technologies, including video telephony, streaming, VoIP and online browsing."

It can be adapted to IP-based networks such as LANs, WANs and Internet. "From homes to offices, wherever there's an Ethernet line, XTP 8830 facilitates meetings face-to-face anytime, from anywhere in the world," Trolltech officials (trolls?) say, "Qtopia's customizable platform enabled the efficient integration of all these features, as well as providing an intuitive and easy-to-learn interface."

VoIP penetration as a home phone service product is slowly gaining traction within U.S. households, reveals Telephia, a vendor of performance measurement information to the converging communications and mobile industries.

Vonage led the VoIP market, which includes all pure-play VoIP companies and providers who actively promote their VoIP service as Internet telephony, securing a 47.5 percent market share, or nearly 1.9 million households in January 2006, up from a 40 percent share in June 2005.

Gigamon Systems, a vendor of data access products for out-of-band network monitoring, announced the availability of Version 2.0 of the GigaVUE-MP Data Access Switch for "best practice" VoIP deployment by service providers and large enterprise networks.

GigaVUE-MP provides "high quality, high volume" VoIP service by "accommodating the ever-growing monitoring demands on redundant mesh networks," company officials say. GigaVUE also eliminates the need for multiple distributed tools, which can save a significant amount of money and time.

It tackles the problem of "too many tools and not enough access points" by creating an "out-of-band" monitoring network that brings all critical data to the VoIP analyzer, enabling other tools to share the data view for security or monitoring purposes, company officials explain:

"GigaVUE-MP aggregates traffic from multiple network segments and access points, separating VoIP from non-VoIP data. It uses hardware packet-based filters and logically divides and maps this aggregated VoIP traffic to multiple VoIP analyzers in order to guarantee optimal traffic load. The entire flow of VoIP calls may be monitored en mass, or it can drill down on a single call."

Whaleback Systems introduced two major new features to the CrystalBlue Voice Service, which provides Small and Medium Businesses with access to rich Voice over IP functionality that they can use via a simple broadband cable or DSL connection.

The company is announcing Road Warrior Functionality and OrcaDial. Road Warrior Functionality allows businesses to extend their office communications to employees that are on the road or working from home, irrespective of their location, underlying access network or endpoint device.

Basically, it allows SMBs to connect multiple offices, mobile employees and telecommuters as if they were all located under a single roof.

Whaleback's Road Warrior Functionality feature connects customers with employees regardless of their location and gives mobile employees full access to the company's SMB 1500 IP PBX, which streamlines communications and improves productivity.

David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims' columnist page.