Empirix Rolls Out Hammer XMS Active Monitoring Solution for VoIP Services
By Laura Stotler

Empirix has introduced Hammer XMS Active, an active monitoring solution for enhanced VoIP services. The new solution is part of the company’s carrier-class monitoring and analysis portfolio and complements the Hammer XMS passive monitoring solution. Hammer XMS Active gives service providers complete, multidimensional insight into customers’ quality of experience. It drives active test calls through a VoIP network, enabling service providers to measure their network and application performance in reaction to controlled stimuli. It also enables feature testing for advanced services, which allows service providers to verify call connectivity and advanced features like three-way calling, call forwarding and call blocking. The solution can emulate calls from TDM and IP endpoint, which enables service providers to represent real customer transactions. It also provides voice quality measurements using PESQ algorithms, which gives service providers a standard set of information regardless of the type of endpoint that is being simulated. The Hammer XMS Active may be easily integrated with Hammer’s XMS passive monitoring solution so that service providers can have one comprehensive view of voice quality. This speeds up the diagnosis of application and infrastructure problems and reduces VoIP service maintenance costs.
www.empirix.com

GlobalTouch Telecom to Deliver Plug-and-Play Video-over-VoIP
By Patrick Barnard

GlobalTouch Telecom is hoping to capitalize on the potential of video communications opportunity with the launch of its new video applications for VoIP. The platform will deliver simple-to-use “one-click” video over VoIP via a PC softphone or desktop model IP video phone. The new VoIP platform supports the Leadtek desktop video telephone. The standalone videophone, which is designed for video over IP, has a built-in 5 inch TFT LCD screen and a CCD camera that can be rotated and tilted. Callers also can use the GTT video softphone, which includes integration with Microsoft (News - Alert) Outlook. By clicking on an Outlook contact, a user can instantly initiate a video call with another similarly outfitted user, or any user who has a desktop video telephone. If a user on either end of the call does not have a multimedia device, the call reverts to a normal voice only call by default. Gregory O. Welch, CEO of GTT, said “The demands of globalization, cost reduction and productivity acceleration are exerting increasing pressure on enterprises large and small. For our customers, video over VoIP means a very attractive new feature and revenue streams.” Cliff Rees, COO of GTT, added that “Video over VoIP is not just a cool feature, but a window into VoIP’s future, where VoIP communications offers remote interactive communications from any location on any device. By designing our VoIP platform with open standards to support a broader range of devices, we [enable] our ASP customers to offer their subscribers lots of value added, plug and play options like video telephony.”
www.globaltouchtelecom.com

NDS Announces Synamedia Metro IPTV (News - Alert) Middleware Solution

NDS announced Synamedia Metro, a complete IPTV middleware solution for telecommunications companies (telcos) and broadband operators. The new full-feature product brings the world’s leading television technologies to the telecommunications industry, enabling telcos to offer the power of IPTV to their subscribers. Synamedia Metro IPTV middleware allows IPTV operators to offer attractive Electronic Program Guides (EPG), interactive TV applications (iTV), Video on Demand (VOD), digital video recorder (DVR) or network DVR capabilities, and interactive games, in either standard (SD) or high definition (HD), all of which are built using the NDS MediaHighway middleware application development tools. Synamedia Metro also protects premium content and revenue streams through NDS VideoGuard, a robust and secure encryption technology for content protection, revenue protection, and rights management. By integrating these technologies into a single solution, the NDS Synamedia Metro architecture enables the telco operator to deploy a single integrated IPTV system, saving time in the critical startup phase of any new service. The solution is also standards-based, allowing telcos to choose their system components according to their current infrastructure needs. Nigel Smith, vice president NDS Broadband Internet Group said, “We believe that only an open solution will meet the requirements for providing new and exciting IPTV services — and with Synamedia Metro being fully standards-based and having open interfaces, the operator can choose to mix and match components and not be locked into a single supplier.”
www.nds.com

EarthLink Selects Solegy Managed VoIP Platform For Its MindSpring PC-to-Phone Service

Solegy’s ServicePDQ managed VoIP platform was chosen by EarthLink as the basis for the PC-to-phone component of MindSpring, EarthLink’s softphone client that combines Internet voice and instant messaging on a consumer’s PC. ServicePDQ allows MindSpring users to make calls directly from their PC to any traditional phone, while enjoying an unparalleled array of innovative user features. The ServicePDQ platform, managed for EarthLink by Solegy, gives MindSpring users access to a Web portal offering convenient, single-click self-provisioning as well as customer self service. ServicePDQ’s SIP softswitch architecture also supports real-time billing for MindSpring-originated calls to traditional PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) phone lines. “Solegy’s fully-managed business model helped us launch a feature-rich, prepaid PC-to-Phone service while meeting an aggressive rollout schedule for our other Internet voice products,” said Tom Hsieh, EarthLink’s director of voice products and engineering. “Solegy offered the features, flexibility and professional support services that we wanted.”
www.earthlink.net
www.solegysystems.com

Veraz Launches “Plug-n-Play” IMS Solution

Veraz Networks announced a highly-scalable, IMS-compliant solution with an integrated prepaid-capable application server to speed the deployment of new services to the mass-market. Service providers can now use the ControlSwitch softswitch for IMS-compliant deployments of new services including enhanced messaging services and VoBB for not only monthly subscription accounts, but also for prepaid user accounts. The new Veraz IMS-compliant solution including the ControlSwitch with integrated pre-paid charging, user portal and soft client allows service providers to launch highly scalable VoBB services as part of an overall open standard IMS service-based architecture. Additionally, during the migration to an all IMS network, the Veraz ControlSwitch supports hybrid voice and multimedia networks. This hybrid network support is possible because the programmable ControlSwitch integrates with both the traditional narrowband voice-centric access networks and new IMS-compliant infrastructure. “IMS is the rising tide of the telecommunications industry today and service providers are formulating strategies on how to implement IMS into their networks,” said Doug Sabella, CEO of Veraz. “The ControlSwitch focuses on that strategy with a plug-n-play solution. The progress of our IMS initiatives gives Service Providers a powerful platform on which to offer new services and integrate IMS into their networks now.”
www.veraznetworks.com

Shenick Taps Telchemy for IPTV and Triple-Play Testing
By Johanne Torres

VoIP performance tester Telchemy has been tapped by Shenick Network Systems, an IP communications test systems provider, to license Telchemy’s VQmon/SA-VM IPTV and VQmon/SA VoIP performance analysis software for use in its diversifEye Triple Play communications test system. The deal will enable Shenick to provide its customers with the ability to test performance and quality issues for IPTV, VoIP, triple play, and broadband services within a single system. This way, service providers will be able to offer higher quality, reliable IPTV services. The VQmon software agent monitors IP-based voice and video streams in real-time, measures the time distribution of lost and discarded packets using a multi-state statistical model, examines the type of codec, bit rate and other factors using a perceptual model to calculate transmission quality and perceptual quality metrics. DiversifEye determines the quality and performance limitations with the convergence of voice, video, and enhanced broadband data services. The VQmon/SA/VM-diversifEye combo will allow Shenick to support real-time, passive IPTV video quality analysis on a per IPTV channel basis.
www.telchemy.com
www.shenick.com

T.G.I. Friday’s Provides Servers with a Sixth Sense Through ESP
By Susan J. Campbell

Servers in 12 T.G.I. Friday’s restaurants in the Northeast are soon to have a sixth sense — the ability to know exactly what a customer needs before the server even arrives at the table. This clairvoyant ability will provided by none other than ESP Systems. ESP is designed to allow restaurant employees to customize the service experience to each guest, reduce wait times, prevent costly service gaps, and increase the productivity of employees. In partnership with Microsoft, ESP links everyone in the restaurant with a wireless network. Each guest is provided access via a small, table-set device, called an “ESP Hub,” which enables them to instantly communicate with their servers. In addition, all front-of-house employees wear an “ESP Watch,” which receives the real-time messages from their guests, as well as from the kitchen, bar, hosts, and other staff. Managers are provided with real-time performance data on their best and under-performing servers, revealing who can handle more tables. Test deployments revealed that 85 percent of guests felt that ESP enhanced their dining experience, 55 percent indicated that ESP would influence their future dining decisions, and 88 percent said that ESP prevented specific deficiencies that have previously led them to never return to restaurants. The tests also increase table turnover by 10 percent and 93 percent of servers said they would prefer to work at a restaurant with ESP. ESP can be installed overnight and server training takes less than ten minutes, thus enabling restaurants to realize immediate profits resulting from higher revenues and lower costs.
www.espsystems.net

CableMatrix, VCom, AudioCodes (News - Alert), and Emergent Unveil VoIP Over WiMAX

CableMatrix Technologies, a provider of QoS policy management solutions; VCom, a designer and manufacturer of WiMAX-compatible base stations and customer premise equipment; AudioCodes, a provider of converged VoIP media gateways and media servers; and Emergent Networks, a provider of advanced telecommunications software for the emerging communications networks, have demonstrated an IP voice over WiMAX call. The combined elements enable high quality IP voice over the IEEE 802.16 air interface standard by incorporating dynamic QoS on behalf of authorized IP voice sessions. The result is a completely deployable SIP-based voice solution for broadband wireless service providers. QoS is triggered and admitted in real-time by Emergent’s SBC and CableMatrix’s Policy Decision Function (PDF) when a call is initiated by the AudioCodes’ Analog Terminal Adapter (ATA). VCom’s VistaMAX base station allocates the necessary QoS based upon characteristics of the admitted IP voice call. Calls are then terminated off-network by the AudioCodes’ core media gateway. Service quality is maintained throughout the duration of the call, even when competing against bandwidth intensive video sessions. Focusing on standards-based technology, the solution demonstrates the viability of differentiated services in an IP network. Components used in the demo are compatible with the emerging WiMAX standard for interoperability and with the IMS framework used for next-generation converged IP services.
www.cablematrix.com
www.vcom.com
www.audiocodes.com
www.emergent-netsolutions.com

Leave Your Laptop Behind for Presentations
By Erik Linask

Live presentations are a part of everyday business and, with them, come presentation materials. Often, however, it would be considerably easier to leave the laptop in a hotel room or at the office rather than having to lug it along for the presentation. T-Mobile now makes that possible for its subscribers by making available to them Impatica ShowMate, the presentation solution that allows users to project PowerPoint presentations directly from their BlackBerry (News - Alert) wireless devices. ShowMate is a pocket-sized hardware device weighing less than nine ounces and supports all PowerPoint presentation features including rich text, images, charts, graphs, animations and slide transition effects. ShowMate’s simplicity of use makes it an optimal solution for mobile workers with a need for presentation materials. To get the show started, users open a PowerPoint e-mail attachment or select a presentation they previously saved to the device then connect the ShowMate to both the handheld and to a projector. The presentation is now ready to begin. Presentation slides are displayed simultaneously on the BlackBerry and on the projector screen with text, graphics, charts, graphs, and even advanced animations and transition effects shown in full fidelity. The BlackBerry also becomes an easy-to-use remote, allowing the user to navigate through the presentation while being able to see the screen navigation on the device. To make connecting the ShowMate device even easier, it now ships with a Bluetooth USB adapter so that it can be used wirelessly with Bluetooth-enabled BlackBerry handheld devices.
www.t-mobile.com
www.blackberry.com

Huawei Helps PCCW Achieve Real-time 3G TV Broadcast

PCCW launched its 3G mobile TV service, based on the innovative Cell Multimedia Broadcast (CMB) technology provided by Huawei Technologies, a provider of next generation telecommunications network solutions for operators around the world. PCCW has thus become the world’s first provider of real-time TV broadcast over a 3G network, using CMB technology. PCCW operates the world’s largest IPTV service through its now TV and contents from now TV have just become available on PCCW mobile. Huawei’s CMB technology realizes channel sharing and allows network capacity supporting large numbers of concurrent users with minimal impact on network loading, allowing for cost-effective delivery. In the first phase, contents offered over the PCCW mobile network will include now TV’s Business News Channel, with additional contects coming soon, including sports programming from ESPN and Sportev. PCCW Executive Director, Mr. Alex Arena said, “This is a significant innovation by PCCW, allowing us to leverage our extensive content line-up to more people, across more of our platforms, fixed and mobile. We are excited to bring this groundbreaking 3G technology to our customers — another world-first for us.”
www.pccwmobile.com
www.huawei.com

Tzero’s Wireless Broadcast-Quality Video

Tzero Technologies has introduced its solution for delivering broadcast-quality video over wireless networks. The new Tzero TZ 7000 chipset meets the link reliability and packet error rate requirements defined by Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, and Sony. Using the Tzero UWB solution, these consumer electronics manufacturers will be able to provide a completely wireless network for connecting home entertainment systems, computers, and other electronic devices within a home or office. “With the popularity of wireless computer networks, consumers and business users are asking how they can link all of their electronic devices wirelessly whether it’s their TVs, iPods, DVRs, or game boxes,” said Ben Bajarin, Creative Strategies. The Tzero TZ 7000 chipset solution has NLOS operation, which enables devices to communicate wirelessly through walls to extend across multiple rooms. It also features performance up to 10 million times greater than other wireless networks and transmission speeds of up to 480 Mbps to support even the highest demands of broadcast-quality video. Able to carry three or more HD video streams across a 20-meter range while running at 100Mbits per second, Tzero supports a completely wireless network that can easily connect multiple devices throughout the home or office at the same time. The Tzero TZ 7000 UWB offering is a complete chipset solution, offering networked connectivity through a ubiquitous IP network. Supporting the WiMedia Alliance UWB standard, the Tzero solution provides the performance required for real-time video delivery. It also avoids interference from other devices, both in-band and out-of-band, which has affected other forms of wireless networks.
www.tzerotech.com

Creating an AirTight Wireless Network
By Erik Linask

AirTight Networks, a provider of wireless perimeter security solutions — just the technology wireless-enabled enterprises need to ensure optimal operating conditions —provides enterprises and service providers with ‘round-the-clock wireless monitoring and automatic intrusion prevention, while managing wireless LAN performance for maximum performance, capacity and uptime. Importantly, AirTight’s solutions can work for anyone, being scalable from as little as a single laptop to networks with literally millions of wireless devices. AirTight has announced four new releases that, together, comprise the company’s four-tiered network architecture for securing and managing networks. AirTight provides a robust, scalable, and manageable wireless intrusion prevention system (WIPS) capability, as well as a WLAN troubleshooting and management capability that can see, protect, and manage millions of WLAN devices simultaneously. AirTight Networks’ Wireless Intrusion Prevention and Performance Management (WIPPM) architecture is comprised of four tiers: the wireless devices or clients, wireless sensors that see and protect the clients, the WIPPM server that manages the sensors, and a Management Console that provides visibility, intrusion prevention, and management capabilities across multiple WIPPM servers and millions of wireless devices. AirTight’s WIPPM architecture delivers lower capital and operations costs for a wireless network infrastructure, as well as higher performance, higher reliability, and higher security on that wireless infrastructure.
www.airtightnetworks.net

NexTone Launches “NexTone Compatible” Partner Program and Interoperability Lab

NexTone Communications announced it has launched the NexTone Compatible partner program and commissioned a supporting interoperability facility in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The “NexTone Compatible” partner program will use the state-of-the-art “NexTone Lab” for certifications. The purpose of this initiative is to help service providers accelerate their deployment of VoIP and IMS services by ensuring seamless interoperability between the NexTone IntelliConnectTM System and other service platforms. The NexTone Compatible partner program provides multiple levels of certification ranging from product interoperability to turnkey solutions. The NexTone Lab houses partner equipment for certifications and is connected to other interoperability labs around the world. The NexTone Lab has already supported over 100 interoperability events with equipment from vendors such as Broadsoft, Cantata, Cisco, Nortel (News - Alert), and Sylantro. “The openness and flexibility of IMS and VoIP technologies are creating new deployment complexities for service providers, with interoperability being their chief worry,” said Satyanarayana Parimi, director of interoperability and quality assurance at NexTone. “Normally, service providers must spend months in their system integration labs to ensure that products purchased from separate vendors will work as a cohesive system. Our partner program and lab certifications assure service providers that NexTone’s IntelliConnect System works seamlessly with other vendor products and solutions. Service providers can now jumpstart their revenue from new services and have access to a steady stream of new and exciting applications and services.”
www.nextone.com

Juniper and Microsoft Enhance IPTV Security
By Cindy Waxer

In a move that should further the adoption of the IPTV, Juniper Networks (News - Alert) has agreed to provide security services for Microsoft Corp.’s IPTV software. Juniper, a computer network equipment maker, and Microsoft are collaborating to provide end-to-end security to address the current and emerging needs of their service provider customers. With this agreement, Juniper can offer IPTV network security solutions to customers of Microsoft TV IPTV Edition. The Juniper Firewall and Firewall IDP (Intrusion Detection and Prevention) product platforms complement the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition content security mechanisms to help protect the infrastructure from malicious traffic and attacks such as worms, trojans, spyware and application layer threats. In addition, Juniper will offer various security consulting services that assist operators to assess service infrastructure vulnerabilities and design network security solutions. The Juniper security products offer cost-effective scale and performance, enabling operators to protect large numbers of video serving platforms. The security products include: Juniper Networks NetScreen-5200 and NetScreen-5400 Integrated Firewall/IPSec Virtual Private Network (VPN) appliances; Juniper Networks Integrated Security Gateway (ISG) 1000 and 2000 with Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP) appliances; Juniper Networks NetScreen-Security Manager.
www.juniper.net
www.microsoft.com

Ciena Adds Dynamic Wavelength Routing to CN 4200 FlexSelect Platform

Ciena Corporation announced the addition of Dynamic Wavelength Routing capabilities to its CN 4200 FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform, creating a solution that uses a hybrid electrical and optical ROADM design to combine whole and sub-wavelength switching in one platform. Through efficient electrical grooming of services onto each wavelength, the CN 4200 ROADM uses up to 78 percent fewer wavelengths and, for the first time, brings the benefits of reconfigurable optical technology to any service rate down to 155 Mbps. Combined with the CN 4200’s software-defined FlexiPort technology and Optical Transport Network (OTN) support, the CN 4200 delivers the most flexible ROADM solution for grooming and switching the most amount of traffic on the fewest wavelengths. The platform also cost-effectively scales capacity and degrees of switching based on customer demand and offers service level management across the entire network. “Due to rapid growth, quality of service sensitivity, and dynamic bandwidth demands, IPTV, VOD, VoIP, Ethernet, storage extension, and other advanced services are forcing service providers to increase their metro bandwidth flexibility for responding to unpredictable traffic patterns,” said Jason Marcheck, Principal Optical Infrastructure Analyst at Current Analysis. “Designed to eliminate stranded bandwidth and offer full and sub-wavelength switching support down to 155 Mbps granularity, Ciena’s hybrid approach to ROADM provides a flexible way to help carriers reduce the costs to plan, groom, switch and reconfigure optical transport.” Ciena’s CN 4200 is the flagship product of its FlexSelect Architecture, a standards-based, service-oriented approach to building next-generation network infrastructures. The CN 4200 family of multiservice transport and aggregation platforms is capable of on-demand support for any transport protocol — including SONET/SDH, Ethernet, storage (Fibre Channel, FICON, ESCON) or video—at any speed on any available port using the industry’s first universal line card with individual user-programmable ports.
www.ciena.com

GL Enhances VoIP Network Testing Tools
By Erik Linask

GL Communications provides PC-based test, analysis, and simulation products and services to the global telecommunications industry. Expanding its already robust product offering, GL has announced the availability of two enhanced packet test tools for VoIP networks. PacketScan is GL’s real-time VoIP analyzer that runs on a standard PC with a NIC card and is an invaluable tool for testing IP phones, gateways, routers, and switches, and proxies. Hundreds of calls can be monitored in real-time and detailed call statistics and data can be viewed simultaneously. QOS statistics are also gathered such as packet loss, gap, jitter, and delay. The RTP Toolbox application is used to create, monitor, analyze, and terminate multiple RTP traffic streams. Received voice traffic can be analyzed by graphical and tabular methods such as oscilloscope and spectral displays, tone and speech levels, and voice can be recorded to file. Tones, dual tones, noise, and voice files can also be transmitted.
www.gl.com

ECI Telecom Unveils Powerful Feature Set for Its Flagship Optical Platform

ECI Telecom announced an extensive set of new features that enhances its end-to-end XDM optical solution, making it one of the most powerful metro/regional WDM/ROADM platforms on the market today for triple play delivery, wireless backhaul, business data connectivity, and carrier’s carrier networks in North America, as well as the global market. The latest XDM release significantly enhances both WDM/ROADM and SONET/SDH functionality, enabling service providers to build end-to-end optical transport networks (OTN), from access to core/regional, based on a single platform and with significantly simplified operations. ECI’s ROADM solution enables service providers to build agile, scalable and future-proof networks and to deploy new revenue generating services more quickly and easily, without re-engineering the network. The compact XDM-40 extends DWDM and OTN networks to the access and customer premise. New high-end reach extension technologies, such as enhanced coding for 10G wavelength, LiNbO3 transceivers, and a wide range of optical fiber amplifiers and Raman amplifiers, enable XDM networks to cover more than 1500 km as well as to cross undersea and remote areas of over 300 km without in-line amplifiers or regenerators. All of the XDMs share a unique universal base card, upon which all 2.5G and 10G transponders and combiners are configured. Together with compact 10G and 2.5G widely tunable lasers, this approach enables carriers to keep spare parts costs to the absolute minimum and simplifies the network planning, installation, and maintenance processes.
www.ecitele.com

Kontron Bows High Density Xeon-based ATCA Processor Board
By Robert Liu

Kontron of Canada introduced the Kontron AT8020 AdvancedTCA (News - Alert) processor board, which features two Dual-Core Intel (News - Alert) Xeon processors LV 2.0 GHz and support for two AdvancedMC (News - Alert) modules. The company believes the double Sossaman-chip design, which is paired with Intel’s Lindenhurst MCH E7520 server chipset with 667 MHz FSB and support for PCI Express, creates an open modular processing platform that will increase the number of deployments of AdvancedTCA solutions at the heart of every computer-intensive mobile-IMS network element from the transcoding of live multimedia mobile content on a Multimedia Resource Function Processor (MRFP) to concurrent processing of subscriber data on Home Subscriber Locator (HLR) systems. The Kontron AT8020’s Xeon processors feature 2MB 2nd level cache. Also unique to this board design is its two mid-size AdvancedMC sites for customization, up to 16 GB of DDR 400 Registered ECC SDRAM, and a flexible mezzanine switch fabric featuring a CrossSwitch for SAS (News - Alert) and Ethernet. The AT8020 is designed with a Network Timing Subsystem for clocking support to integrate with a wide assortment of telecom I/O AMC modules such as T1/E1, OC-3 and others.
www.kontron.com

AVIVA Networks Unveils 10 Gbps ATCA/MicroTCA Packet Processor Blade with DPI

AVIVA Networks announced its 10 Gbps packet processing engine featuring deep packet inspection for use in Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (AdvancedTCA) and MicroTCA applications. Designed to improve network efficiency and performance, the new AMC10G IP Acceleration card allows telecom operators and enterprises to capitalize on a new generation of network applications and services, thereby reducing costs and increasing profits. AVIVA’s AMC10G design is based on EZchip Technologies’ NP-2/10 network processing chip, one of the most advanced multi-core processors on the market. The chip’s flexibility enables building platforms that deliver a wide variety of applications for Layer 2-4 switching and routing and Layer 5-7 stateful session processing and packet payload manipulation. The NP2/10 supports 10Gbit/sec full-duplex throughput (20Gbit/sec total). Embedded search engines allow routing and deep packet inspection also to be performed at wire speed. AVIVA Networks’ AMC10G IP Acceleration card prioritizes and manages IP traffic to optimize application performance, balance network loads and ensure the timely delivery of packets. It can deliver a wide range of functionality, with support for VLAN stacking, MPLS/VPLS, and IPv4/IPv6 routing coupled with advanced QoS, including DiffServ and IntServ. While the AMC10G can be employed as a mezzanine card within an ATCA environment, it also embraces the MicroTCA standard and can be deployed directly in a MicroTCA chassis. In addition to traffic flow management, dynamic firewall policies can be applied at all network layers based on ICSA-certified implementations. The AMC10G provides a security policy management interface for dynamic policy implementation and statistics collection.
www.avivanetworks.com

Quintum (News - Alert) Intros Tenor VoIP Call Routing Server II
By Michelle Pasquerello

Quintum Technologies has redesigned its Tenor Call Routing Server with cost and smaller applications in mind. The company has announced the Tenor Call Routing Server II (CRSII), which gives CLECs, ISPs, and next-generation service providers intelligent and scalable management capabilities to administer their routing of calls across their VoIP networks. The CRSII offers the ability to route calls in real time built on QoS-based routing that automatically routes calls around any portions of the network that are not supporting acceptable QoS characteristics, source-based routing, route quality, best pattern match, circuit routing, domain priority, and load balancing. The CRSII also controls access to the voice network by disallowing endpoints, providing control over unauthorized access to your network resources. Quintum officials noted that the CRSII is a valuable tool for service providers looking to improve real time call management control. “Quintum’s new Call Routing Server II provides these same benefits to smaller applications at a very attractive price point,” said Charles Rutledge, VP of marketing at Quintum.
www.quintum.com

Magic Software Enterprises sells CRM activity to eContact

Magic Software Enterprises, a provider of state-of-the-art business integration and development technology, announced that it has sold its CRM activity in Israel and abroad to eContact Software. The CRM system developed and marketed by Magic in recent years is a complex and unique system for managing customer relations and call centers, and is installed at hundreds of clients throughout the world. eContact plans to make extensive modifications in the acquired product lines, including conversion to an Internet system incorporating Voice over IP. The transaction also includes incorporating Magic Software Enterprise’s eService system, which specializes in providing service via the Internet. The eService system is designed for integration as the primary support component in eContact’s future CRM system and, in particular, for pre/post-paid billing systems for WiFi (News - Alert) and WiMAX systems. According to Dory Asher, major shareholder in eContact: “The great technological flexibility and new product line capabilities of Magic Software enable the realization of eContact’s business model, offering ground breaking CRM systems uniquely targeted at the SMB and SME niches based on Linux, Windows, and i5 (AS400). These systems will provide an integrative and organization-wide response based on Composite Application and implementation of SOA methodology. In addition, eContact’s range of CRM systems will come ready to link to Voice over IP-based telephony systems.”
www.magicsoftware.com

Symmetrics Launches New Version of Data Mart

Symmetrics Business Intelligence Solutions, a provider of reporting, analytics, and performance management solutions for the contact center market, announced the availability of nVISION Data Mart Version 1.5. Symmetrics’ data mart solution addresses the demand from contact centers to more easily and effectively consolidate, access and analyze data from their applications in order to improve visibility into critical contact center performance information such as agent performance, system configuration, call flow, call lifetime details, and more. To achieve the desired level of operational insight, most contact centers are faced with either trying to build out their own data integration solution or augmenting an existing application with new capabilities to fill analytic gaps. In either case, these contact centers risk “reinventing the wheel” and spending unnecessary time to design and implement a viable data model, data extraction processes, and basic report templates. nVision Data Mart help solve these issues, and more. The nVISION Data Mart can work with multiple data sources and applications; however, the nVISION product suite delivers exceptional value for Nortel-centric contact centers. With features including data adaptors and a repository that allow Nortel users to optimize all Symposium Call Center Server/Contact Center Manager Server data (including historical, agent login logout and call-by-call), Nortel users can get up-and-running quickly. A number of Symmetrics customers have deployed a solution within only a couple of days.
www.symmetrics.net

Oracle (News - Alert) Buys Telephony@Work

Oracle is expanding its CRM On Demand offerings with the acquisition of Telephony@Work, a provider of IP-based software infrastructure for hosted contact center services. Telephony@Work’s CallCenterAnywhere is a carrier-grade, multi-channel contact center solution that provides an out of the box alternative to custom programming and systems integration for on demand and on-premise contact centers. Telephony@Work’s multi-tenant capabilities enable compelling economies of scale that have been utilized by Fortune 100 companies and tier-1 carriers. In addition to offering CallCenterAnywhere through Oracle’s Siebel Contact On Demand, the technology is also sold to end-user companies and to commercial service providers who host the technology on behalf of their corporate customers. With the addition of Telephony@Work, Oracle becomes the first CRM applications provider, whether hosted as a service or licensed on-premise, to unify contact center technology and CRM software — delivering a complete “customer to agent” experience. By aligning contact center technologies more closely with CRM and business intelligence, Oracle plans to reduce the high cost and increasing complexity of integrating disparate contact center and CRM data, and also offer a range of flexible deployment options.
www.oracle.com
www.telephonyatwork.com

Yak Joins Forces with Intel
By Cindy Waxer

Yak Communications has teamed up with Intel to market its VoIP services. The provider of legacy and VoIP telephony services to residential and business customers announced that it has signed a software license and distribution agreement with Intel. Yak will offer its WorldCity VoIP product suite in conjunction with the roll out of the Intel 600SM PCI Phone Adapter. Aimed at simplicity and ease of use, the new Intel 600SM PCI Phone Adapter features an integrated Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA) that works seamlessly with Yak’s VoIP premium telecommunication services: yakToAnyone and yakUnlimited services. “Yak is thrilled to deliver a turnkey, easy to use VoIP solution in conjunction with the Intel 600SM PCI Phone Adapter, which makes it easier for our VoIP customers to access and enjoy our premium VoIP services,” said Charles Zwebner, Chairman and CEO of Yak Communications Inc. “This relationship serves to both optimize our products for compatibility with phone ready PCs and provide a distribution model that will help us accelerate our execution plans on our VoIP business strategy.”
www.yak.com
www.intel.com

Microsoft to Gain from Ubiquity Software (News - Alert) Alliance
By Robert Liu

Microsoft and Ubiquity Software will develop and market converged communications solutions to telecommunications to service providers worldwide. Under the terms of a new alliance, Microsoft and Ubiquity said they will help operators address critical issues such as the integration of service delivery platform (SDP) deployments with next-generation network implementations based on the IP Multimedia Subsystem (News - Alert) (IMS) standard. The combined solutions will help operators extend the capabilities of IMS to create applications that integrate multiple Web services with real-time communications features. From the deal, Microsoft gains from Ubiquity’s Session Initiation Protocol (News - Alert) (SIP) expertise. On the other side of the table, Microsoft’s newest U.K. partner gains another distribution channel through the Microsoft Connected Services Framework, which, unlike the software giant’s penetration on the client side, is facing considerably more challenges breaking into the vertical market for operators and carriers. “Working with Ubiquity, we can provide operators with an integrated platform that leverages their investment in IMS infrastructure and introduces the innovation found in the Web world, enabling them to deliver rich, converged communications services to their users,” said Maria Martinez, corporate vice president of the Communications Sector at Microsoft. Since its introduction, Ubiquity’s SIP application server (A/S) is that has won the support from major hardware vendors and telecom equipment manufacturers. For example, Intel has validated the open, standards-based service creation platform at its MSP Laboratories as a component of the Modular Communications Platform framework. SIP A/S has already been selected by many carriers to enable the rapid development and deployment of a broad range of advanced communications services.
www.ubiquitysoftware.com
www.microsoft.com

Sonus and Atreus Launch VoIP and IMS Offerings
By Johanne Torres

VoIP technology providers Sonus Networks (News - Alert) and Atreus Systems announced that they have joined forces to launch a self-care access portal as part of the Sonus Certified Voice over Broadband (VoBB) system. The deal will make Atreus a member of the Sonus’ Open Service Partner Alliance (OSPA). The partnership with Sonus will enable the company to deliver an integrated portal for service providers to automate the configuration and management of VoIP features. The portal will also deliver a Web-based self-care service for consumer VoIP; a user-driven voice feature configuration; detailed logs of incoming, outgoing and missed calls; voicemail download and playback, and an entry-level system for an easier migration to the full self-provisioning system for Business VoIP, Wholesale VoIP and IMS-based offerings. “Together, Atreus and Sonus are helping service providers of all sizes unlock VoIP’s potential with entry-level self-care portals and facilitating their migration to fully-featured user self-provisioning solutions,” said Len Castelli, vice president of business development, Atreus Systems. “This partnership will help service providers to differentiate themselves by automating the processes to quickly turn up VoIP and rich IMS-based multimedia offerings.”
www.sonusnet.com
www.atreus-systems.com

WildBlue Signs Wholesale Distribution Agreements with DIRECTV and EchoStar

WildBlue Communications, a provider of broadband access to consumers and small offices, primarily in rural areas and small cities, has signed five-year wholesale distribution agreements with each of DIRECTV and EchoStar Communications. As part of these agreements, WildBlue is the only satellite-based Internet solution that each of DIRECTV and EchoStar will offer to their respective customers for the next five years. DIRECTV and EchoStar currently offer digital television entertainment via satellite to a combined total of more than 27 million customers nationwide. WildBlue provides broadband Internet access via satellite to homes and small businesses in communities that are not currently served, or are underserved, by other broadband providers. DIRECTV and EchoStar intend to begin offering WildBlue high-speed Internet service in the coming months across the contiguous United States, with further details on availability and pricing of their respective offerings forthcoming. The offerings will be provided separately under the DIRECTV and EchoStar brand names and sub-branded as “powered by WildBlue.” The WildBlue broadband offering will be focused on small town America and rural markets.
www.wildblue.com

Bulletproof VoIP Security for SIP Softphone Users
By Erik Linask

In order to provide customers with a “bulletproof” VoIP security solution, Covergence — which provides solutions to ensure scalability, security, and control of VoIP and other SIP-based services — has tested the ability to communicate between the CounterPath eyeBeam 1.5 Video SIP softphone and its own Eclipse SIP Session Manager using the IETF standards Transport Layer Security (TLS) for signaling information and its counterpart the Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP) for voice and video traffic. Typically, any advance in security functionality results in some erosion of network performance. Because Eclipse has been specifically engineered from the ground up — it is not a retrofitted version of a previous solution — for SIP communications, any downturn in network efficiency is minimized so as not to interfere with service delivery in any user-noticeable way. The end result of the testing is Covergence’s announcement that it has certified CounterPath Solutions’ eyeBeam 1.5 softphone application for use with Covergence’s Eclipse solution. The duo is now set to offer the growing VoIP market a customers VoIP security solution that prevents any unauthorized access to the user’s call while also protecting the provider. By using Eclipse, service providers give their customers the security and reliability they expect; when they combine that with the eyeBeam softphone, providers are providing their subscribers with the rich multi-modal communications experience required by today’s complex user base.
www.covergence.com
www.counterpath.com

Pangean Technologies Enhances IP-based PA Systems
By Stefania Viscusi

Pangean Technologies, provider of SIP-based VoIP software applications for internal and campus-wide communications for the enterprise, is making voice broadcasted communications easier with the release of v2.0 of their insta-RELAY! IP-based Public Address (PA) system. With the new release, communications over PA systems are made possible via SIP. This allows employees and other users to quickly tune into audio broadcasts on the corporate network over their PC — no matter where they are located, eliminating the need for hardware. The new version also integrates with traditional PA systems so broadcasts from these traditional systems to an employee or user PC are still possible. In emergencies, the solution provides an IP-based emergency broadcast system. The new version of insta-RELAY supports MYSQL as well as Pangean’s Multicast Reflector, a solution that allows unicast-only networks to receive multicast communications, which enables multicast packets to go across corporate WAN links, even if multicast is not enabled.
www.pangeantech.com

Brekeke Speeds Development of Java-based SIP Apps
By Erik Linask

Brekeke Software, developer of voice and data communications technology, has released its Brekeke JTAPI SDK 1.0. Designed for Java software developers, Brekeke’s JTAPI (Java Telephony Application Programming Interface) SDK is an implementation of Sun Microsystem’s JTAPI 1.4. The software development kit merges components of Brekeke’s already popular OnDO SIP Server (a SIP Proxy and SIP Registrar) and OnDO PBX (an IP PBX). Both products have enjoyed success among VoIP implementations globally. “Brekeke’s JTAPI SDK does not require extensive knowledge of SIP technology, which makes it easier to learn and use compared to other development tools, such as JAIN or SIP Servlet framework,” commented Shin Yamade, Brekeke CEO. By combining features, Java software developers can easily create their own IVR, call service application, or conference server. Additionally, developers can convert existing non-SIP applications to SIP, re-use existing JTAPI applications, and integrate SIP-based telephony systems with other applications such as CRM or groupware. Supporting such features as making calls, receiving calls, call transfer, call recording, call conference, playing sound files and DTMF recognition, the JTAPI SDK is available for a limited time through a trial program and is being offered at an introductory price exclusively through Brekeke Software. Notably, this version of Brekeke’s JTAPI SDK is not capable of creating a SIP phone; it lacks a feature that would associate the microphone and speaker. This feature may be added in a future release.
www.brekeke.com

Multi-Tech Announces New SIP-Focused VoIP Gateways

Multi-Tech Systems has introduced its new MultiVOIP voice and fax over IP gateways targeted towards businesses implementing SIP telephony. The new VoIP gateways are available in two-, four-, and eight-port models, and include features selected specifically for implementing SIP telephony. They are cost-effectively priced, while still offering business-class quality and performance. The MultiVOIP FX gateways connect to analog ports using two, four, or eight FXS or FXO interfaces. They connect to an IP network using a 10/100BaseT interface, include an RS232 command port, can be controlled through a Web browser, and are flash upgradeable. These new models support SIP for sending and receiving voice over an IP network, T.38 real-time fax relaying for VoIP equipment interoperability, Voice Activity Detection for silence compression, Comfort Noise Generation for a more natural speaking experience, and they utilize 5.3K bps voice compression for maximizing bandwidth. The SIP standard, primarily developed by the IETF SIP working group, allows for the interoperability of a large number of devices from various vendors with those devices being easily configured and automatically updated as necessary. The new MultiVOIP FX gateways enable the integration of existing telephony equipment into SIP networks. SIP-based telephony networks offer stable interoperability with a wide range of features and flexibility. The new Multi-Tech Systems MultiVOIP FX products fit well into such networks by being able to adapt existing telephony equipment to evolving user requirements.
www.multitech.com