VoIP Choice

Anti Voip Blocking by SpeedVoIP

2007-10-10T12:04:00.000-07:00

Canadian based company SpeedVoIP has been providing VoIP solutions to geographical areas being blocked from VoIP. Some areas do that to prevent people from having free or very low cost long distance telephone calls.

One of such areas is Korea, where SpeedVoiP's proprietary technology called VGCP (Voice Guard at Control Protocol) has been utilized successfully while enabling high quality internet phone connectivity.

Recently Speed VoIP has extended it's reach to the region of Dubai where the VoIP calls have also been blocked.

New Mobile Internet Phone and MP3 Player Combo

2007-06-16T23:52:00.000-07:00

As for now it is only in Japan but there is a new gizmo combining a Skype and MSN Messenger wireless internet phone with an MP3 player compatible with both iTunes and Windows Media player. It has been released in Japan just 4 days ago.

The way it communicates wirelessly is through a long range, class one Bluetooth providing a range of up to 100 meters (or around 300 feet) in open area. That is for both cords free Skype-ing MSN-ing and uploading of tunes from the Bluetooth linked computer around.

The batter life of the unit is up to around 72 hours of continuous usage.

Cisco IP Phone

2007-06-10T16:44:00.000-07:00

Cisco IP Phones are still quite popular in the corporate world even though in many places folks are moving into the open voice architectures like Asterisk.

Here is a couple popular Cisco Internet Phones:

Cisco IP Phone 7912G

This is an entry level Cisco VoIP Phone. The navigation on this phone is accomplished via the four soft buttons placed underneath its pixel LCD display on top. It has a good sound quality and carries a small build in speaker phone. With the Menu button one can easily show info like voice mail calls tracking for incoming and outgoing calls, including incoming calls, outgoing calls and missed calls.

Cisco 7936 Conference Station

This Cisco Phone as well as its predecessor the Cisco 7935 are well known in the business teleconferencing circles. It supports an external microphone as well as an external microphone kit also from Cisco. The unite sports full duplex operating allowing for a loud and clear two way conversation without distortions. The integrated keypad is handy and that along with the triangular shape gives the phone something of a spacey look.

Vonage Expands Its Internet Phone Service in Both Manitoba and Saskatchewan Canada

2007-06-07T16:39:00.000-07:00

Vonage has expanded its services again. This time to the city of Brandon in Manitoba as well as Regina and Saskatoon in the Saskatchewan province of Canada.

This no doubt, gives move internet calling options to folks living in these places. As usual, the internet phone service requires a high speed internet access.

In the words of Joe Parent, vice president of marketing and business development for the Canadian branch of Vonage "I am excited that consumers in Brandon can now cut the cord with their existing phone company, and experience the freedom that Vonage phone service provides and enjoy great savings on their monthly phone bill"

New US Court Ruling On VoIP Internet Phone Companies

2007-06-03T17:18:00.000-07:00

The US court ruled that US VoIP companies like Vonage or SunRocket need to pay Universal Service Fund (USF) fees. It will apply only to those Internet Phone companies that hook into the PSTN (Public Service Telephone Network - meaning the regular phones).

Currently regular phone company fees of that sort are around 12 percent of their long distance income. But since VoIP traffic is not categorized that way the FCC ruled it to be around 65 percent for VoIP companies. You can also compare that to some 37 percent of revenue that cellphone providers pay there.

In the words of FCC chairman Kevin Martin: "I am pleased that the court has affirmed the commission's action, which ensures that USF contribution obligations are administered in a competitively and technologically neutral manner on all phone providers, including interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers"

So what does it mean to an average VoIP consumer? Well, it's estimated to add around $1.30 to monthly subscription internet telephony fees. That sounds like reasonable, not making a huge difference in comparing VoIP to PSTN costs of operation.

Pentagon installs voip internet phones too

2007-05-19T20:21:00.000-07:00

Now the army boys and girls are getting into the internet calling too. Will that make them more peaceful? I don't know :-) But for sure it is another indicator of the voip's ever wider spread and acceptance across all areas of endeavor.

The company who got contract to install the internet phone voip system for this fighting oriented department of US government is General Dynamics. As this department is very money rich so will this voip system be also one of the most fully featured and elaborate.

To paraphrase Dan Busby at General Dynamics Information Technology it will be a voice centric, 21st century IT infrastructure for the Pentagon. Well, I'd say that what that basically means is that it will be cool and both parties look like quite happy with the tax payers sponsored deal. Now, if all they did was buy stuff like internet telephony then maybe we would have no wars :-)

Voice Over IP Is Spreading

2007-03-29T19:41:00.000-07:00

There is currently, as of this writing, over 10 million voice over IP users in the US. Cable companies find themselves rivaling for the market share with dedicated voice over IP companies like Voip.com or Sunrocket. These companies target mainly local calling market, offering 50% or more savings compared to using regular PSTN phone services.

The so called free VoIP companies are doing well as well targeting the international market. I said so called because you still pay with these long distance fees while calling to regular phone numbers and there's extra fees for regular incoming number and other extras like voice mail that comes free with the paid voice over IP telephone services. Also with the 'free services' you need to supply your own VoIP phone hardware like regular phone to internet adapters. Meantime Sunrocket for example offers free VoIP phones with one year money back guarantee and the lowest fees in the industry, starting at $9.99 a month.

Long Distance Telephone Bill Tax Refund

2006-12-27T16:50:00.000-08:00

If you live in the US then you can qualify for a special one time tax refund of approximately
$30 to $60. The estimated total amount to be refunded is reported at around $10 billion.

According to the Internal Revenue Service "The telephone tax refund is a one-time payment available on your 2006 federal income tax return, designed to refund previously collected federal excise taxes on long-distance or bundled services. It is available to anyone who paid such taxes on landline, wireless, or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service."

Expert Help Through Jyve ViOP Internet Phone And Instant Messenger

2006-12-20T14:53:00.000-08:00

Have you ever been looking for a fast answer to a question and was not quite not sure where to find it? Are you wondering how can you share what you know and also be paid for it? If you have answered in the affirmative to one or both of the above questions questions then you might be interested in seeing what Jyve is and what it does.

Jyve is an international, Internet community based, information and knowledge search platform run through the proprietary Jyve hub platform. One of the pleasant things about it is that it offers virtually instant access to answers through Skype VoIP voice chat or internet messenger typing chat.

It offers a broad base of categories, each one including several sub-categories:

• Arts & Creative Services
• Business & Finance
• Computers & Programming
• Education & Tutoring
• Health & Medicine
• Home & Leisure
• Legal Services
• Professional Counseling
• Spirituality & Religion

The interface of the system is very simple. First you type in your question then click "Get a Live Answer". And for those looking for another venue of monetizing their knowledge Jyve also provides an excellent opportunity to do just that. The fee for using Jyve as an expert looks also reasonable at around 20% If you are interested in that there three ways of doing it:

• Use the SkypeNet and SkypeWeb buttons on your web or blog pages. After the caller likes what he or she hears - you can ask to initiate the paid part of the call with a simple button push.
• Install the JyvePro buttons on those web or blog pages if you prefer to initiate pre-authorized VoIP calls.
• Get listed in the JyvePro directory of experts.

Full privacy is also assured there through the ability to use any name that you set your Skype VoIP phone . And as for availability it allows for full flexibility. For example, if the expert’s Skype phone is set to ‘busy’ then no calls will be routed there. Also the calendar feature allows for an easy visual setup of available time periods when the calls can be taken.

Which Is Better - Paid VoIP or Free VoIP Internet Phone Calls?

2006-12-10T14:18:00.000-08:00

Paid VoIP internet phone plans start at around $20 a month which comes to about $250 a year. So why would one want pay for it if you can get it for free? But before I delve into that let me notice that even with the free VoIP to landline or cell phone offers – there are usually small long distance charges with common exceptions often dealing with free promotional offers. And with many free offers going around one can keep calling for free whether PC to PC to PSTN phone or in combintions of these involiving Wi-Fi internet phone connectivity - throughout many areas of the world.

There are certain features that the paid internet phone provider might supply which a free one might not. One such feature is the 911 emergency call service functionality. This particular issue has to do with the difficulty of pinpointing a geographical location of a call that is being routed through the Internet. FCC has regulated in 2005 that all VoIP providers hooking up to PSTN network are required to comply with providing full 911 call compatibility or otherwise not to obtain new customers in areas where it is mandatory.

Sometimes there is also raised a question of a voice transmission quality difference between the two types of VoIP internet calling, although in my personal experience that has not been an issue.

Next there is the local phone number availability. Some free internet phone providers offer it as an add-on paid feature. The same may apply to extras like caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding and voice mail. Others allow you even to have more then one local number and in remote geographical locations.

If you are a business VoIP user the ability to send faxes over VoIP connection might be important to you as well. Or if you are using VoIP for conference calling with large number of simultaneous participants then it is definitely something to find out – how far will your VoIP provider be able to accommodate you with that.

The final answer to which type of VoIP is better will depend on whether you need these extra internet phone features. Also many paid internet phone providers have signup specials offering either free VoIP phone sets and/or interface boxes for regular corded or cordless phones . So if you are planning on using regular phone sets for dialing up to VoIP network that might be then also something to consider.

And if you are not depending on free long distance VoIP to PSTN offers from the free internet phone providers then the amount of time you spend on the phone can also be a factor in deciding which type of VoIP is best suite to your needs.

Free VoIP Internet Phone Calling With Free Call Planet

2006-11-29T08:30:00.000-08:00

Free Call Planet allows VoIP calling to 39 countries fro free from within the USA. Here is the list of these countries as of the writing:

Argentina
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Brazil (only cities with these call numbers 55 21,55 31,55 11)
Canada
Chile
China (including mobile phones)
Chech Republic
Denmark
France
Germany
Guam
Greece
HongKong (including mobile phones)
Ireland
Italy
Korea(South)
Malaysia
Mexico (only cities with these call numbers 52 33,52 55,52 81)
Netherlands
Norway
Panama
(only Panama City 507 2)
Portugal
PuertoRico
Russia (only cities with these call numbers 7 095,7 812)
Singapore (including mobile phones)
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand (including mobile phones)
United Kingdom
USA(except Alaska)
Venezuela (only Caracas 58 212)
US Virgin Islands

For mobile phone users additional fees from their cell phone providers might apply. On unlimited minutes the call should be free although one needs to be carefull not to press the 'send' or 'call' button or retreive the number from the cellphone's directory - after calling the gatewa number - otherwise one can be billed the high rates by the given mobile phone provider.

The way to use this internet phone service is by calling one of the so called gateway numbers placed throughout the states. If one lives outside toll free zone for that number then there is naturally a charge for calling it from the local phone company - unless one has a domestic or cell phone plan that covers that. Otherwise, say if one lives in the same city where the gateway number corresponds to then the call to it is automatically free.

On December 6th, this year - there is also to be released a list of additional 40 or so countries to which unlimited VoIP calling can be done for a flat fee of $10 per month, paid monthly.

Some other details include being able to call only from a pre-specified by user IP or phone number as well as $0.25 per minute charge to most countries not listed in the free call plan and $0.75 per minute to special access countries - when subscribed to their Free Call Planet Plus plan.

According to the company the free call plan has no termination point at this time although it is a part of their promotion program and can be withdrawn at any time.

A unique and nice feature of the Free Call Planet service is that it allows originating the calls through regular PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) service. In other words you can make the internet phone VoIP call by using regular phone - no computer or IP phone is needed.

VoIP Internet Phone Calling For Free

2006-11-25T02:21:00.000-08:00

One way of calling for free is through achievement of mastery in mental telepathy and clairaudience :-)

But also, much more easily, you can accomplish that feat these days through the means of widely available technology. And while long distance physical travel is usually accompanied by monetary spending and sometimes a lot of it - these days your voice can be tele-transported to most destinations on Earth for free.

It is being done through the utilization of Internet. Once you are connected to the Internet then there need to be no extra fees for transferring of information. So yes, there is often a charge for the hooking up to the Internet itself but aside of that the data travels for free. And once voice is digitized on computer it is also treated as any other computer data. And then, by tapping to a public wireless connection - even that charge can be circumvented.

Technically speaking the procedure at hand here is called VoIP or Voice over the Internet Protocol. So practically speaking - what is needed is just the mentioned here Internet connection, then a computer with headset or microphone and speakers. And if you don't already have it - you just download and install a free piece of Internet phone software and off you go calling for free.

Going with the newest advancements in the field of Internet telephony - it is also possible for you to skip the computer part of the free phone call equation entirely. There are small, routers like gadgets, to which you can plug in your regular phone and go calling for free as well. And as I mentioned before there is also the option available through using the newest generation of Internet phones that allow you to call for free from within any so called hot spot, or public wi-fi wireless Internet zone. Some of such devices also work as both cell phone and wifi Internet phone all in once - smoothly switching from one to the other, depending on whether you happen to be within a hot spot zone or out of it.

These type of calls that we have described here are then between voice over IP devices. It is also possible and very easy to call from such units to regular phones and the other way back as well. As a rule there are some very low nominal per minute charges associated with that. Although there are several exceptions which include promotions that allow even some of these kind of calls to be carried without paying long distance charge or having to pay installation or monthly telephone fees with local phone company.

New Cisco Linksys CIT310 Cordless Internet Phone

2006-11-12T14:15:00.000-08:00

Cisco's division Linksys has released released its new entry into the arena of cordless internet phones. It is called CIT310 and is particularly designed to inerface the best with Yahoo messenger VoIP service.

For under $80 it is a good value - already available on the Internet.

This phone allows you to call for free to other Yahoo Messenger voice users and you can see your Yahoo buddies list right there on the phone's display. It also works as a regular cordless phone.

Vonage partners with HP

2006-10-08T19:50:00.000-07:00

Vonage has announced a new partnership with Hewlet Packard.

As a part of this agreement each new HP and Compaq computer is going to be bundled with a special offer from Vonaga offering discounted rates on their VoIP internet phone plans. The computers will also come with the relevant Vonage VoIP software.

China to become biggest broadband market in 2007

2006-09-04T15:32:00.000-07:00

According to the Ovum analytics company China is poised to have the largest number of broadband subscribers by some time in 2007. That is despite of the currently still very low broadband market penetration there amounting to some 3.4% Naturally that is because of the large population of China and the booming economy.

According to the same forecast the number of Chinese broadband users is to reach 139 million by the year 2010. That will surely increase the penetration of broadband based internet telephony as well as of all manner of WiFi VoIP applications.

VoIP Calls Steady On The Increase

2006-08-07T18:52:00.000-07:00

Worldwide number of Internet phone users as well as VoIP revenues have roughly doubled. The VoIP spread is commonly predicted to be on an increase through the year2010.

In the United States the VoIP Internet phone usage has been evenly split between commercial and private, individual users. Meanwhile in Europe business VoIP users accounted for about a quarter of the Internet phone calls.

Also in the US, currently the biggest VoIP customer base belongs to the cable companies, standing now at around 39 percent and ahead of the biggest VoIP names like Vonage and Packet 8.

Skype on USB stick

2006-07-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

Skype has just pertnered with SanDisk in releasing a new product to the market.

SanDisk, the well known maker of USB memory drives will be releasing new USB drives ranging in capacity from 512Mb to 4Gb and suggested retail price from $39.99 to $199.99. Nothing real new there - but these drives are going to be embedded with the full Skype internet phone software for VoIP calls on the go. Just plug in one of those to any windows 2000 or XP computer connected to the internet and off you go Skype calling.

The new USB memory sticks are of the Cruzer Micro and Cuzer Titanium lines and as a bonus they will also come with one month free of Skype voicemail for voice messaging on the go.

It looks like after being acquired by eBay last year, Skype continues expanding very nicely. Remember also that all Skype calls to landline phones are free in the US and Canada till the end of this year 2006 as a part of special promotion.

New Philips Internet Phones

2006-06-28T20:53:00.000-07:00

Phillips Electronics has announced a new VoIP phones. One that works with Skype, called VOIP 321 and one for Microsoft's Live Messenger, named VOIP 433. The names of these devices are not too sleek but the looks are :-)

Both Internet phones work also as regular, PSTN land line cordless phones. These also include big back lit, monochrome LCD screens displaying among other things - which contacts are currently on or off line. The buttons are back lit too and the color of the display model at the Las Vegas 2006 Consumer's Electronics Show - is a nice metallic silver.

Microsoft has released the MSN Live Messenger with VoIP

2006-06-21T22:23:00.000-07:00

MSN Live Messenger is finally and officially out of beta and released to the public for free as it was with its previous version.

The new messenger sports a new graphics design and layout while keeping its previous cool functionality. The new awaited features include the VoIP internet phone to and from landlines and cell phones, synchronized audio and video and one click access to blog and email.

This messenger is a part of the slew of new Microsoft products being gradually released under the name Live which is going to include the all new 64 bit Windows Vista , Office Live, new Hotmail email and new Outlook Express.

The software engine in the messenger is based on code designed by Logitech International SA.
The Live Messenger is available for download from http://get.live.com/messenger/overview

Skype getting activated on eBay

2006-06-14T18:16:00.000-07:00

It has been nine months since eBay has purchased Skype for $2.6 billion. And yesterday eBay has announced that it is ready to include the Skype phone on 14 of its auction listing categories. These were selected to be those that might demand the biggest amount of interactivity between the buyer and the seller which could be facilitated by a quick and free computer phone conversation.

Many eBayers are excited about the new internet phone feature while some are apprehensive about putting the Skype button on their listings because of the prospect of being flooded by phone calls.

Another service that eBay is currently testing, called eBay alerts,will be able to place cellphone calls to buyers, alerting them to status of their bids.

Google is also currently testing a 'click-to-call' advertizing service.

Cheap VoIP From Voipcheap

2006-06-04T10:52:00.000-07:00

Here is a new twist on the free internet phone calls to landline phones. A company called Voipcheap gives certain amount of free landline calling to the following destinations:

Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada Chile, China, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Monaco, Mongolia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States and Venezuela.

So these internet call landline destinations qualify for 300 free minutes a week once the user deposits some real money to their Voip Cheap account. That amount expires after 90 days and is not refundable or transferrable.

The system requirements for Voip Cheap are very basic:

Minimum System Requirements:

PC with Windows XP or 2000 (with Service Pack 2)
300 Mhz speed of the central processor
128 Mb RAM memory
10 MB free hard drive disc space
Sound Card
Headset or microphone and speakers
Internet Connection with minimum 64 Kbit/second up and downstream.

Optimum System Requirements:

PC with Windows XP or 2000 (with Service Pack 2)
1 Ghz speed of the cnentral processor
256 Mb RAM momory
30 MB free hard drive disc space
Full duplex sound card (most cards made after 1998)
Headset or microphone and speakers
High Speed internet connection (such as Cable or DSL)

The Voip Cheap internet calling software is free to download and the dialing out very simple: 00 + Country Code + Area Code + Local Destination Phone Number

NetGear Wi-Fi Internet Phone for Skype

2006-05-24T23:15:00.000-07:00

NetGear has just announced the upcoming in July 2006 release of a brand new WiFi internet phone for Skype. Yay, for all the mobile internet users. Now all you need to call for free to any PC, anywhere in the world is a WiFi hot spot and your brand new shiny Skype enabled internet phone. Isn't life good? :-)

This Netgear's internet phone is going to be selling directly from the Skype website for about $250 to start. It sports a nice color display, weighs 2.2 lb in the gift box with batteries and got the looks too.

Of course you can use this internet phone for calling to any regular landline or cellphone as well with the regular low cost Skype rates or for free this year, as a promo - within the United States and Canada.

VoIPCom Internet Phone Corporation

2006-05-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

I heard recently the name VoIPCom. Curious what that was I did a little research and found that AmeriResource Technologies, Inc., a Delaware corporation, purchased 23 million shares of VoIPCom which makes up for roughly 97% of the outstanding common stock, for $80,000 in April of 2005.

The name VoIPCom is a brand name of Voice over IP Communications Limited. And the company itself is apparently co-located within London, England and operating a carrier-grade VoIP platform allowing to send and receive traffic from VocalTec, Cisco and Clarent switches anywhere in the world.

Plantronic offering new internet phone bloototh headset

2006-05-22T19:03:00.000-07:00

It is called Voyager 510 and it is Plantronics' newest entry in to internet phone accessories arena. This bluetooth headset technology is compatible with AOL, Avaya, Cisco, MSN, Skype, Yahoo and other internet phone software applications. Also it requires no installation, jut plug and play. It is currently being listed at around a hundred dollars.

Some of the Voyager 510's other attractive features also include:

built in wind noise reduction technology.
regular outside noise reduction circuitry.
stylish, compact and light weight design.
one touch call control buttons.

Skype partners with SPIRIT DSP

2006-05-22T18:45:00.000-07:00

Skype has established now a core voice partnership with SPIRIT DSP. The later is a leading world provider of embedded voice conferencing, currently employing over 120 people.

With TeamSpirit (TM) being SPIRIT's key product and also the world's fastest voice engine for mobile applications - Skype is positioning itself strongly in the mobile and conference calling market. TeamSpirit (TM) 2.0 is a conference calling engine being targetted at business needing voice collaboration with wide band voice quality and sophisticated featureas at a competitive price point. Currently it is being bundled with products from Adobe, HP Open Call, Oracle, Paltalk and other ones.