VoIP service provider Vonage said this week it will appeal a U.S. District Court jury’s verdict that it pay up $69.5 million in damages for willfully infringing on Sprint Nextel Corp’s patents. The company indicated it will ask the court to set aside the verdict, and if this request is not honored it will “vigorously pursue an appeal of the decision, including the underlying issue of liability and the willfulness aspect.”

In response to the rapid growth of the Hybrid and IP PBX markets, Broadvox has announced the addition of Broadbox GO! SIP Trunking to its product offering. The VoIP provider will be offering the new service to both SMBs and enterprises.

Broadvox believes that reaping the financial benefits of an IP PBX requires both VoIP service and SIP trunking. When these elements are in place, companies can save nearly 70 percent on voice communications costs compared with traditional TDM.

Snom this week announced expansion of its desktop IP phone portfolio with the new m3 cordless DECT IP phone. The m3 boasts average talk time of ten hours with a standby time of ten times that. The fully-functional VoIP phone also features a sleek design and comfortable form factor.

TMCnet recently spoke with Eyeball Networks to find out about NAT traversal, VoIP and direction the company is taking. Eyeball Networks is a pioneer in Internet telephony and instant messaging software for service providers, application developers, and device makers.

Network products manufacturer Cisco launched a new series of solutions as part of its Empowered Branch product line. These solutions are designed to help businesses standardize the technology architectures of branch offices with a unified system of secure communications solutions.

Interoperability is a key feature of Cisco’s new Empowered Branch solutions. The idea is to enhance the productivity of branch offices by lowering barriers to entry associated with adoption of next-generation communications services.

Video conferencing solutions have really begun to grab attention in the marketplace for offering communications capabilities that meet a number of different needs.

SightSpeed, a company offering free and premium Internet video and voice communication services like video conferencing, is making communications possible via quality video and voice calls as well as the ability to send video mail over the Internet.

TMCnet recently caught up with Eric Quanstrom, VP Consumer Marketing & Business Development at SightSpeed, to find out a little more about video conferencing and next generation communications solutions.

Grandstream Network’s SIP phones and ATAs are now officially interoperable with the Digium Asterisk Business Edition Platform, the two companies announced this week. The Grandstream GXP 2020 and Multi-line SIP Enterprise Phone Series, as well as the HandyTone 50x Analog Telephone Adaptor Series, are now fully interoperable with Digium's Asterisk Business Edition Platform, which delivers traditional and advanced telecommunications applications based on open source software.

This means SME customers can combine the excellent voice quality and an advanced feature sets delivered through Grandstream’s phones with the configurability, scalability and reliability of the Asterisk open source telephony platform.

VoIP solutions company Quintum published a guide about security measures that come standard with the software that runs on its Tenor switches and gateways. Security is a concern when deploying VoIP sitches and gateways for IP networks, so the company designed the guide to address the topic. Tenors are secure in both H.323 and SIP environments, thanks to authorization and authentication built into the software.

Publicly traded 8x8, Inc., provider of the Packet8 residential, business VoIP and video services, announced an agreement with a service provider that will soon exit the VoIP market calling for the exclusive recommendation of Packet8 as the replacement VoIP service for its soon-to-be-orphaned subscribers.

Packet8 will thus become “the only brand presented and promoted to the roughly 12,000 subscribers who will be left without VoIP phone service after the company winds down its VoIP operations over the next three months,” 8x8 said.

RingCentral, a company that specializes in online fax and other Web-based communications solutions for small businesses, announced its completion of a $12 million funding round. Two venture capital firms contributed to RingCentral’s growth in response to the company’s use of the software as a service (SaaS) model to deliver Web-based communications tools for small businesses.

Further strengthening its standing in the marketplace, RingCentral also hired a new chief financial officer, Dinesh Lathi.

According to Broadcast International, the infrastructure for delivering on the promise of IPTV—HD quality video delivered on an IP broadband network, wherever and whenever users want it—is not yet ready for prime time.

Rod Tiede, CEO of Broadcast International , noted that the weak spot in the delivery chain is inadequate video compression technology, which is necessary for providing the quantity and quality of video that users will demand.

Computer manufacturer Dell, which has been making significant strides toward environmental change and awareness, took a giant step to become "the first major computer manufacturer to commit to neutralizing the carbon impact of its worldwide operations."

Chairman and CEO, Michael Dell commented during a policy forum organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, “Leadership starts at home, which is why we are going carbon-neutral.” Carbon neutral means there is no total carbon release since the amount of carbon that is released is balanced with the amount sequestered.