VoIP Week in Review from TMCNet

By Johanne Torres

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

This week, the VoIP Minute Watch covers news from Vonage, AT&T, Vodafone, Juniper, BT, AudioCodes (News - Alert), Alcatel-Lucent, Orange and Vocalscape.

 

The more than 100 Wal-Mart stores across Canada have reportedly launched the chain's first ever VoIP offering in that country this week. Via a new agreement, Vonage (News - Alert) will be the first Internet phone service to be sold in Canadian Wal-Mart stores. The service is also available in approximately 1,300 retail outlets across Canada including in Canadian Best Buys, Future Shops, The Source by Circuit Citys and Staples Business Depots.

 

The news followed Vonage announcing that more than 94 percent of its subscriber lines in the U.S. are currently equipped with Enhanced 911 (E911) service. This feature associates a physical address with the calling party’s telephone number automatically. The move will allow the company to offer E911 to more than 2 million lines.

 

ACT Teleconferencing has reached an agreement to extend an outsourced global teleconferencing services contract with AT&T. The companies announced the agreement on Wednesday. ACT is an independent provider of audio, video and Web-based conferencing products and services.

 

Via this contract extension, ACT is reportedly trying to further its marketing efforts for the ClarionCall II, the company’s conferencing platform. ACT’s ClarionCall system is targeted at international enterprises that operate and manage their own private IP-networks and want to save on overseas conferencing calling charges. ClarionCall’s multi-media features include attended and unattended conferencing services via either VoIP or PSTN.

 

Keynote Systems (News - Alert), a developer of testing and measuring technologies for mobile networks, announced on Tuesday that it has reached a new agreement with Vodafone. Under the agreement, Germany-based Keynote SIGOS, a wholly-owned Keynote subsidiary, will be a preferred supplier to Vodafone Global for the company’s systems to actively test and measure the performance of mobile networks. (SIGOS was purchased by Keynote in April 2006 and renamed Keynote SIGOS).

 

The new agreement allows up to 20 Vodafone Group (News - Alert) companies to now acquire mobile network test and measurement solutions directly from Keynote SIGOS. The offer is extended to Vodafone UK, Spain and more than 15 additional Vodafone companies.

 

Juniper Networks agreed to provide a bundle of routers and security solutions for BT, as the telecom prepares to deploy an IP network for the U.K.'s Defense Fixed Telecommunications Service (DFTS) project.

 

DFTS is being delivered by BT as agreed with the Ministry of Defense (MoD) Defense Communications Service Agency (DCSA). The project hooks up over 240,000 users at over 1,500 sites across the UK and overseas. DFTS links all existing defense networks, as it delivers unified voice, data, LAN interconnectivity and WAN services for the Royal Navy, British Army, the Royal Air Force and MoD Center. The companies' new network and services have been live since September.

 

Israeli VoIP technology provider AudioCodes announced on Thursday that it will acquire CTI Squared Ltd. (CTI2), a provider of messaging and communications platforms.  According to AudioCodes, the company will do this by purchasing CTI's remaining outstanding shares for $10 million in cash. CTI2 provides platforms that integrate data and voice messaging services over Internet, intranet, PSTN, cellular, cable and enterprise networks.

 

Alcatel-Lucent issued a statement on Thursday confirming that it will continue to develop MiViewTV capabilities as key components of its converged entertainment platforms used by Telefónica, despite reports of the company having chosen Microsoft, its main supplier for IPTV software.

 

Reports by online news source Light Reading surfaced yesterday saying that Alcatel-Lucent desisted to further work on the Imagenio platform, which was to be used by Lucent to build MiViewTV—the multimedia service.

 

It seems as if Alcatel-Lucent has arranged to go ahead with its IPTV (News - Alert) plans by just "blending everything in." The company will launch its services by converging its in-house systems including the MiViewTV—which came from the Telefónica agreement; the MiTV Mobile Solution—which it inherited from the Mobilitec acquisition; as well as Microsoft's solutions.

 

Mobile operator Orange will now feature Thomson’s Livephone, an IP DECT phone with HD Sound, as part of its VoIP offering. Because the phone is wireless, it will allow Orange’s subscribers to benefit from using VoIP without having to be tethered to a fixed line. According to the companies, this is the first product available to the residential market which features HD sound technology. The devices are currently available in all Orange's shops in France. Orange wants to specifically target the new devices at VoIP users who are already equipped with the Livebox residential gateway, also developed by Thomson.

 

VoIP service providers will now be able to deliver prepaid VoIP services to customers who currently use their traditional phones together with an analog telephone adapter (ATA) or softphone. Vocalscape Networks introduced Friday a VoIP system which now allows for a VoIP service using a prepaid ATA model. Company officials say they developed the new model in response to requests from customers who wanted to deliver VoIP services without having to engage in postpaid billing. The new model features a billing system which tracks the status of accounts online in real-time, as well as the ability to bundle prepaid funds or features, like DIDs, with devices sold in retail stores.

 

There you have it folks, another exciting week in the VoIP industry! Stay tuned and read the VoIP Minute Watch for the latest news…