Brix Launches Self-Service VoIP Quality Testing Site

Brix Networks has launched TestYourVoIP.com -- a free, self-service, VoIP quality testing portal that enables users to independently measure the quality of their VoIP connections via a quick, user-initiated test call.The site is powered by the Brix System VoIP performance management solution, which consists of distributed hardware test points, called Verifiers, that communicate with, and are managed by, the BrixWorx central-site software application. The system tests signaling quality (signaling path performance), delivery quality (media transport...

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Global Crossing Expands its VoIP Portfolio

Global Crossing announced three new enterprise VoIP services that delivered over its private MPLS network. The new offerings include:"VoIP Outbound": Global Crossing will accept enterprise outbound IP voice traffic for long distance and international long distance to more than 240 countries worldwide. The IP voice traffic will be transported across Global Crossing's private VoIP platform for off-net TDM completion via the local PSTN. The service will be available in the summer of 2004 in North America, with phased rollouts to other regions. "VoIP...

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Alcatel and Fujitsu Selected for Sea-Me-We 4 Cable

Alcatel and Fujitsu were chosen to build a new terabit capacity Sea-Me-We 4 submarine cable network, which will span nearly 20,000 km and link 14 countries from France to Singapore via Italy, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia with 16 landing points. Sea-Me-We 4 will have more than 32 times the initial capacity of the previous Sea-Me-We 3 system, which entered service in 1997. http://www.alcatel....

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Broadvox Deploys Sylantro for Consumer/Business VoIP

Broadvox is using Sylantro Systems' hosted VoIP communications solution to address the consumer VoIP market and the business IP Centrex market through the same platform. Broadvox, which deployed hosted communications services for business users in 2002, launched residential services in three cities in the Midwest earlier this month. Nationwide deployment is planned for 87 major markets by the end of 2004. Broadvox is the first announced Sylantro customer to deploy the consumer offering. http://www.sylantro....

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Netrake Upgrades Session Controllers for Residential Services

Netrake has enhanced its existing nCite session controller platforms to allow carriers to securely offer residential VoIP services. The new features in Netrake's nCite session controller include its new Hosted Firewall/NAT Traversal and User Mobility service. With the Hosted Firewall/NAT Traversal service, carriers who already have the nCite session controller deployed for carrier-to-carrier peering can now offer residential VoIP services on the same platform. The Hosted FW/NAT service recognizes registered residential end devices and performs...

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VocalData Hits the 20,000 Residential VoIP Subscriber Mark

VocalData announced that its customers are now delivering residential VoIP to more than 20,000 subscribers using the VocalData application server. VocalData's residential VoIP customers include Panasonic in cooperation with NTT COMWARE in Japan, which offers residential VoIP services to cable TV subscribers; PRIMUS Telecommunications Canada, which is making residential VoIP available in Canada via any high-speed Internet access connection; wholesale providers like Kancharla and regional providers like US Sonet and Ceristar in the United States....

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Motorola to Acquire Quantum Bridge for FTTP

Motorola agreed to acquire Quantum Bridge Communications in an all cash transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed. Quantum Bridge is a supplier of FTTP solutions based in Andover, Massachusetts. Motorola said the acquisition complements its existing multiservice technologyhttp://www.motorola.comhttp://www.quantumbridge.comQuantum Bridge was founded in 1998 and is headed by company founder Anthony Zo...

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VON Keynote: Alcatel -- Migrating from VoIP to MMoIP

"We are at the dawn of the rich, media-connected world," said Vickie Yohie, Senior Vice President, Multimedia Services Delivery, Alcatel, speaking at the Spring VON conference in Santa Clara, California. But it is not just about VoIP, she said, as VoIP "is just one face of a larger market shift to user centric Multimedia over IP (MMoIP)" -- technology that is transforming the way enterprises and service providers communicate. Why MMoIP? Yohie argues "because we can" and "because there is genuine market enthusiasm to do so." Over the past few...

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VON Keynote: The FCC Enters the Year of VoIP

"If last year was the year of spectrum, this is the year of VoIP," said Robert Pepper, Chief of Policy Development at the FCC. In the first three months of this year, the FCC has issued an historic declaratory ruling on VoIP (the Pulver.com petition), initiated a Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement (CALEA) rulemaking proceeding on VoIP, and launched a far-ranging Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) concerning "Everything over IP" (EoIP). In addition to the Pulver.com petition (now resolved), there are also at least five other declaratory...

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VON Keynote: Jeff Pulver -- Nothing is Impossible

"It feels like 1999 all over again," said Jeff Pulver, describing what he said called a second coming of VoIP. Attendance at the Spring VON conference being held this week in Santa Clara, California is back to its pre-bubble days -- over 3,500 attendees are expected, including a majority of carriers. In his opening keynote address, Pulver observed that venture money is flowing back into VoIP start-ups again and there are even rumors that IPOs will be possible once again by early next year. The feelings of optimism can also be traced to the FCC's...

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Metaswitch and Wave7 Deliver VoIP over FTTP

Tennessee's Jackson Energy Authority (JEA) is partnering with Aeneas Internet & Telephone, the largest ISP in western part of the state, to offer voice services over FTTP to residential and business customers. Aeneas has selected MetaSwitch's VP3500 Next Generation Class 5 Switch for its VoIP services. JEA has chosen Wave7 Optics as its FTTP network vendor. http://www.metaswitch.comhttp://www.aeneas....

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VoicePulse Announces Plans for Encrypted Phone Service

VoicePulse, a broadband phone service provider, will use a telephone adapter from Sipura Technology to secure its customers' broadband phone calls using encryption. The encryption capability use technology built into the telephone adapter as well as modifications to VoicePulse's own softswitch, which was developed in house. VoicePulse said that unlike other consumer VoIP offerings to date, its service will protect customer phone calls by encrypting the portion that travels over the public Internet -- a frequent request by its residential consumers...

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SBC Teams with UPS to Launch Wi-Fi Service

SBC Communications plans to install its forthcoming "FreedomLink" Wi-Fi service in thousands of UPS store locations across the U.S.. The SBC Wi-Fi service will also be offered in domestic Mail Boxes Etc. stores, which are part of the UPS retail network. The deal is expected to bring the FreedomLink service to more than 1,500 The UPS Store and Mail Boxes Etc. locations by year-end, with installations continuing through 2005. Currently, there are approximately 3,300 The UPS Store locations, and the total U.S. network is projected to reach 5,000...

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Level 3 Announces Wholesale VoIP Deal with 8x8

Level 3 Communications, is supplying its wholesale VoIP services to 8x8. Specifically, 8x8 has purchased the (3)VoIP Local Inbound and (3)Voice Termination services from Level 3. 8x8 serves residential and business customers through a suite of offerings under the Packet8 and Packet8 Virtual Office brands that include broadband telephone service for residential customers, consumer videophones and virtual office PBX solutions for small businesses. (3)VoIP Local Inbound service, which rides Level 3's softswitch platform, enables VoIP service providers...

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iBasis DirectVoIP Service Simplifies VoIP Interconnections

iBasis introduced a service designed to simplify and accelerate carriers' implementation of direct VoIP interconnections to the iBasis global network for international voice service. The company said its new DirectVoIP service provides rapid interconnects with international VoIP deployments in a matter of days, in contrast to activation periods typically measured in weeks for interconnects to TDM telecommunication carriers. iBasis provides enhanced call signaling control using standards-based H.323 and SIP, allowing operability to multi-vendor...

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PointOne Selects Convedia's IP Media Servers

PointOne Telecommunications has deployed and standardized on Convedia's family of IP Media Servers. PointOne's pure VoIP network, which offers connections to 90 U.S. cities and several international markets, currently processes more than half a billion calls per month. Convedia's Media Servers are being used for PointOne's SIP-based Prepaid Calling Card Service and provide a comprehensive media processing platform for PointOne's other IP telephony enhanced services. Financial terms were not disclosed. Convedia media servers consolidate the functions...

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Telica Names More Softswitch Customers

Telica named four new customers for its next generation softswitching platforms:North Rock Communications -- a full-service fixed wireless CLEC that delivers a range of Internet, wireless, telecom and e-commerce products and services to both business and residential customers in Bermuda. North Rock also provides international long distance service to several other local carriers on the Island. Telica's platform supports both Class 5 local calling and Class 4 tandem trunking applications simultaneously. North Rock is Telica's 20th VoIP customer....

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Net2Phone and Quintum Join Forces for Enterprise Solutions

Net2Phone and Quintum agreed to jointly market Net2Phone's VoIP enterprise services with Quintum's Tenor VoIP MultiPath Switches and gateways. Under the multi-year agreement, Net2Phone and Quintum will integrate VoIP services with enterprise VoIP MultiPath Switches and market the solution as a bundled telephony offering. The bundle will include a configuration "wizard" that can be used with new models of Tenor VoIP equipment to simplify the user experience and allow customers to easily set their gateways to offer low-cost calling over the Net2Phone...

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Callipso Selects Sonus Networks for VoIP

Callipso is deploying Sonus Networks' Open Services Architecture (OSA) in its national network to deliver a range of VoIP services, including origination and termination, as well as SIP-based enhanced services. Specifically, Callipso is implementing Sonus' core trunking solutions including the GSX9000 Open Services Switch, the Insignus Softswitch and the Sonus Insight Management System. Callipso is currently deploying the Sonus infrastructure in five cities throughout the U.S. to enable a SS7 interconnection capability that will support nationwide...

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CloudShield Raises $20 Million for Open Platform

CloudShield Technologies, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California raised $20 million in third round venture financing for its multigigabit, open network services platform. CloudShield's open network services platforms eliminate the reliance on fixed-function ASIC-based appliances for network application and services delivery. The company said network solution developers, systems integrators, and network operators could port existing applications from network appliances and develop new applications to secure, monitor, measure, and control network...

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