[January 4, 2005]

Texas Instruments Releases Viseon�s Digital Home Telephone

BY JOHANNE TORRES

Toward the end of 2004, I covered the emerging trend of the development of WiFi/Cellular hybrid devices for the corporate world. 2005 may be the year of new development of devices for the home, thanks to the popular residential VoIP ( define - news - alert)-enabled calling plans. Today, VoIP technology developers and vendors are starting to collaborate in order to accelerate adoption of digital quality audio and video applications over broadband for the consumer market by making new Internet telephony devices available for home users.

Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) (quote - news - alert) and Viseon Inc. (news - alert) teamed up today to announce the joint development of Viseon's Digital Home Telephone, VisiFone. The VisiFone was specifically designed to enhance the consumer Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) offerings from a variety of carriers both in the United States and abroad. This phone will enable consumers everywhere to make digital IP-based multimedia calls with anyone in the world.

"The phones inside all U.S. homes today have virtually gone unchanged since the introduction to touch-tone dialing in 1963. They were never designed with high-speed broadband connections in mind and are incapable of realizing the full potential that VoIP feature-rich digital services provide consumers," said Viseon President and CEO John Harris. "VisiFone is a revolutionary digital telephone that will finally allow the home phone to join the digital world and to enable the features of VoIP on a fully digital device."

The companies say that with the VisiFone, consumers will be able to hear CD quality digital wide-band audio sound; long gone is the monaural AM radio sound that they have become accustomed to. They will also be able to make high quality two-way video calls and even manage VoIP service features and preferences directly on their VisiFone.

Viseon's broadband Digital Home Telephone incorporates the latest technologies from TI's VoIP and digital media groups, including TI's newest IP phone system-on-a-chip, the TNETV1050, featuring enhanced digital voice quality, conferencing, security and interoperability for next-generation IP phone applications; and its DSP-based TMS320DM64x digital media processor, offering high quality, multi-channel video performance, complete software programmability and reduced system costs through the integration of key audio visual connectivity peripherals.

"The development of Viseon's new VisiFone is an excellent real-world example of how TI has successfully merged two complementary technologies to provide a single point solution for a customer," said Bill Simmelink, general manager of TI's VoIP business. "The combination of our integrated system-on- a-chip for VoIP and our best-in-class digital streaming media processor provides unparalleled performance in video and voice communications. This truly highlights TI's commitment to deliver end-to-end software and silicon solutions for voice, video and data over broadband."

Viseon's VisiFone is compatible with most carriers' VoIP networks. Initially, the device will be offered through Vonage’s Web site and is expected to be in over 7,000 retail and online locations nationwide.

Viseon
www.viseon.com

Texas Instruments Inc.
www.ti.com