INTERNET TELEPHONY — October 2011

The Eyes Have It: Technology & the Fight between Good and Evild

Communications technology played a central role in enabling the villains who caused death and destruction during this summer's London area riots. But don't despite techno citizens! Many of these same technologies are being used by government authorities to fight crime..

Feature Articles

Propelling Collaboration: The Nexus of Voice, Collaboration and Social Media
For many communications technology professionals, myself included, one of the most promising and exciting IP-based technologies to enter the marketplace in the past 10 years has got to be collaboration tools. The ability to initiate and conduct video and web conference calls, share documents, and remain productive while on the road has certainly impacted many businesses and enterprises that have come to rely upon these solutions. In essence, collaboration tools have helped businesses improve a number of processes, like shortening sales cycles, improving customer service, and reducing travel-related costs. At a high level, collaboration is an impressive technology that can tangibly improve business performance.

The Future of VoIP: Regulatory Storm Clouds on the Horizon
When the Federal Communications Commission preempted states from regulating Vonage in late 2004, the entire voice over Internet protocol industry exhaled. Fears the industry would succumb to the burdensome regulatory framework applicable to providers of traditional, circuit-switched telecommunications services seemed to subside, especially with industry supporter Michael Powell at the commission's helm.

The FCC's New Action Plan: Next-Generation 911 and Indoor Location
On Aug. 10, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced a comprehensive plan to upgrade the technology behind the country's emergency call systems and move toward next-generation 911. Two of the primary goals behind the plan are to enable the use of advanced communications methods beyond voice, such as text, photo, and video, to contact 911 call takers; and to develop location accuracy mechanisms for NG911.

Are You Hiding from Emergency Responders?
If your organization doesn't actively manage E911 location information you are increasing the odds that an emergency responder may not be able to find a 911 caller in need quickly enough to help.

TMC Congratulates 2011 INTERNET TELEPHONY Excellence Awards Winners
TMC, the parent of INTERNET TELEPHONY and a global, integrated media company helping clients build communities in print, in person, and online, is proud to announce the winners of the 2011 INTERNET TELEPHONY Excellence Awards.

Amtel TIMS Is Single Platform for Telecom / Mobile Expense Management (TEM) and Mobile Device Management (MDM)
Mobile communications is growing by leaps and bounds in consumer circles as well as in the workplace. Worldwide sales of mobile devices to end users totaled 428.7 million units in the second quarter of 2011, a 16.5 percent increase from the second quarter of 2010, according to Gartner, Inc. The research firm forecasts that worldwide mobile connections will reach 5.6 billion in 2011, up 11 percent from 5 billion connections last year. IT research firm Forrester, meanwhile, tells us that 73 percent of the global enterprise workforce will be mobile users by 2012. That means the 187.9 million mobile users in 2008 will expand to a whopping 397.1 million individuals in 2012.

Voice Carrier Offers New Twist on Virtual PBX Pricing
There are plenty of virtual PBX solution providers in the market place. Sorting through them all to find the right one for your business needs can be a challenge. But a company called Voice Carrier has a special approach to pricing that can result in significant savings for businesses, while at the same time outfitting them with highly reliable and feature-rich solutions.

Departments

Getting Vertical

Utilities & Telecom Partner at the 'Edge' of the Smart Grid
Smart grid applications such as smart metering, distribution automation, street lighting control, renewables integration and building energy management are delivered by distributed energy control networks that thrive on interconnectedness. The hundreds of millions of elements that make up control networks worldwide, such as smart meters and sensors, must be reliably, easily and cost-effectively connected to other elements such as control nodes and to enterprise business applications - aka headends.

Securing the Smart Grid: 3eTI Solutions Opens the Door to Energy Conservation, Closes It to Hackers
Government leaders have long talked about the need for our nation to formulate a policy on energy conservation. Today, the government is leading by example, as federal agencies aim to reduce their energy expenses by approximately 25 percent by 2020, as compared with 2008.

Alliance Foursome Partners on SEP2 Interoperability Effort
Smart energy has generated a lot of buzz in recent years, but putting all the necessary pieces in place to make it happen is no small task. To move smart energy forward, various governmental and industry groups are formulating standards and forging alliances around interoperability.

Unified Communications

Cracking the Multi-Screen Entertainment Nut
A year ago this month media outlets reported that the DBS outfit had trademarked the Nomad name after having used the same term in surveys to describe the ability of users to view TV content across their various television, computer and mobile device screens.

Naysaying the Naysayers of Video
All too often in our industry, we look at technologies in black-or-white terms. Every now and then, there is a meme as to whether chat will kill e-mail, whether video will kill voice, or whether SMS is dead. This talk misses a very important point: Different communications modalities are appropriate choices for different types of conversations.

SIP Trunking for Small Businesses
Lately we've seen (in Ingate's business) a surge of small businesses installing SIP trunks. SIP trunks were first adopted by SMBs that saw the cost-saving potential with shifting voice traffic to SIP. Larger enterprises have also caught on as they realized that the productivity benefits with unified communications were exceptional. UC also offers them a competitive edge.

The Channel
On RAD's Radar

What Makes a Good Channel Manager?
The channel manager is the front line player interfacing with the agent for carriers and master agencies. In my research for my panel at CVx Expo, I asked agents on LinkedIn and on a TCA tele-seminar what their thoughts were.

Kutenda Helps Telecom Agents, IT Outsourcers Get the Word Out
Effective marketing can be a significant challenge, even for companies and individuals who have a clear idea of what they want to say. Telecom agents and IT outsourcers looking for ways to get their messages and services to the small and medium business set can get that assistance from a company called Kutenda.

ITS to Add Cloud, Wireless to Its Services Solutions Portfolio
There’s a lot of talk about innovation in the world of communications these days. But you won’t find Integrated Telemanagement Services Inc. on the leading edge. Instead, the data, voice – and soon-to-be wireless – provider focuses on delivering a high level of customer support and a single bill for multiple services, says Rick Minyard.

Open Source

Intuittech, Strateq Target Asia with Asterisk
Strateq Sdn Bhd has entered into an strategic partnership with Intuittech Sdn Bhd, which says it’s the world’s largest Asterisk (News - Alert) solutions provider. Through the alliance, Strateq becomes the primary sales interface to market and distribute the complete portfolio of Asterisk-based telephony solutions from Intuitttech in the Asian region. Intuittech will be placing its technical and implementation team at all Strateq’s regional offices starting with Singapore and Thailand this year.