IP Telephony News Wrap-up for Aug, 09 2004
1. Broadcom and GIPS CODECs Chosen for PacketCable 1.1
After a year of testing technologies submitted in response to a RFP, CableLabs has chosen Broadcom’s BroadVoice16 and Global IP Sound’s
The BroadVoice16 is a 16-bit CODEC that supports a frame rate down to 5 ms. The iLBC is a 15-bit CODEC that supports a 20 ms frame rate. Both technologies provide greater call volume support than G.711 or G.729.
The CODECs will be provided to developers via a royalty free license.
Shortly after GIPS was awarded inclusion in the specification, Nortel extended its licensing agreement with the company, and, as part of the deal, was issued share purchase warrants representing 5% of the fully diluted value of GIPS.
CableLabs
http://www.cablelabs.com
Broadcom
http://www.broadcom.com
Global IP Sound
http://www.globalipsound.com
Nortel Networks
http://www.nortelnetworks.com
3. SIP Forum Releases Open Source SIP Testing Framework
The SIP Forum has introduced SIP Forum Test Framework v1.0, an open source platform that allows developers to test for common protocol errors between SIP RFC 3261 compliant elements. The source is freely available via a license, obtainable at the SIP Foundry web site.
The SIP Forum and SIP Foundry host 2 bi-annual testing events, SIPit and SIMPLEt, open to members and non- member participation.
SIP Foundry
http://www.sipfoundry.org
SIP Forum
SIPit
http://www.sipit.net
5. Ecuity Launches Mobile IP PBX Service Using TeleSym
Ecuity has launched Smart Call, an IP PBX service that supports remote calling from a PC or Pocket PC compatible device such as a laptop or PDA with a broadband or wireless connection. Users can choose from phone numbers from 2,500 locations throughout the U.S.
Service features include free in-network calling, caller ID, call waiting, call hold, 3-way calling, auto call forwarding, simultaneous ring, on-screen keypad dialing, dialing through Outlook, 4-digit dialing, and voicemail to email.
Service plans begin at $15 per month. A package that includes unlimited domestic long distance is offered at $30 per month.
The service is driven by TeleSym’s SymPhone Enterprise VoIP software.
Ecuity
http://www.ecuityinc.com
TeleSym
http://www.telesym.com
7. Yankee Group Releases Study of VoCable Market
The Yankee Group has released Activity Heats Up in the Global VoIP Market, a study that analyzes the progress of VoIP rollouts by cable operators.
The firm finds that alternative service providers such as Vonage are presently the leading providers of VoIP service, but MSOs will take the lead later in the year. European MSOs, for the most part, are expected to avoid risks of deploying pure IP based systems initially and instead deliver services using hybrid circuit switched/IP systems.
The Yankee Group
http://www.yankeegroup.com
9. Vonage Suffers Nationwide Service Disruption
Last Monday, Vonage service was disrupted nationwide for at least 90 minutes, while some of the provider’s more than 200,000 subscribers were still unable to make and receive calls for many hours. Vonage publicly blamed Global Crossing, yet Global Crossing released a statement that it was not responsible for the outage.
In other company news:
Vonage
http://www.vonage.com
Empirix
http://www.empirix.com
United States District Court of New York (Southern)
http://www.nysd.uscourts.gov
Xten
http://www.xten.com
Global Crossing
http://www.globalcrossing.com
11. Netrake Extends Functionality of Its Session Controller
Netrake has extended the functionality of its nCite session controller to interoperate within more broadband architectures and to deliver more services. The enhanced session controller is now capable of operating within 3GPP wireless networks and PacketCable-based networks. The functionality of the technology has been extended to include not only carrier to carrier peering, but also residential and enterprise VoIP services.
nCite now complies with the PacketCable 1.2 CMSS signaling specification and acts as a border proxy within the PacketCable 1.2 architecture. As part of a VoCable solution, the session controller is able to allow access to wholesale IP carriers providing transit or PSTN termination services. In this capacity, nCite hides the cable network topology from the service provider. Also in a VoCable deployment, the product is able to provide different QoS levels for audio and video.
Netrake has partnered with Sipura to co-market a residential VoIP service platform, using Sipura’s SPA-2000 ATA, which offers more than 500 programmable features including CLASS subscriber services as well as secure remote provisioning using HTTPS with certificate based client authorization. The combined solution provides hosted firewall/NAT traversal and remote access to VPNs and VoIP services. The two companies are also co-developing interoperable provisioning, monitoring, and troubleshooting technologies for broadband access networks.
To address CALEA requirements, Netrake has teamed with SS8 networks, which provides an interoperable law enforcement solution by providing the administration and delivery function of CALEA, while Netrake provides the access function. Both product lines are compliant with PacketCable’s Electronic Surveillance specification.
nCite can scale to manage from 1,000 to 42,000 simultaneous calls at call processing rates up to 300 calls per second. The session controller supports both signaling and media and delivers a set of network data to carriers such as the number of packets transmitted per session, the numbers of packets lost, and measurements of network parameters such as jitter and delay. The product supports different dialing plans and dialing plan management; and provides management capabilities, debugging tools, and security solutions for both firewall traversal and denial of service attacks. Carriers using nCite can view call setup and delivery in real-time as well as collect session detail records about each call to facilitate billing.
Recently, Z-Tel has announced that it planned to deploy nCite to support the rollout of business and residential VoIP services throughout the U.S. as well as to provide interconnection services to other VoIP service providers.
Netrake
http://www.netrake.com
Sipura Technology
http://www.sipura.com
SS8 Networks
http://www.ss8.com
Z-Tel
http://www.z-tel.com
13. USA Companies to Use Sprint to Offer VoCable Services
USA Companies, a Nebraska based cable operator, will use Sprint’s hosted VoCable solution to offer residential VoIP services in California, Montana, and Nebraska. The MSO has 62,000 video subscribers.
USA Companies
http://www.usa-companies.net
Sprint
http://www.sprint.com
http://www.sprint.com/cable
15. eDonkey to Market VoiceGlo’s VoIP Service
eDonkey, a P2P file sharing network provider, will market VoiceGlo’s GloPhone VoIP service to its more than 2.7 million users.
Skype was able to gain millions of subscribers to its PC to PC VoIP service because it was marketed via Kazaa, the most popular file sharing network.
eDonkey
http://www.edonkey.com