Asterisk VoIP News

Clearwire to raise more than $1.5 billion to expand WiMax network

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:45:41 -0800

Clearwire Corp said on Tuesday that it would raise $1.564 billion from its current investors including $1.176 billion from Sprint Nextel to help fund a high-speed wireless network it is building.

Along with Sprint and its cable partners, Clearwire, founded by wireless pioneer Craig McCaw, is competing with the dominant U.S. mobile providers Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc (T.N) in the race to sign up consumers to lucrative services such as mobile Web surfing.

VoIP sales top $20 billion in first half; more growth to come

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:25:41 -0800

Maybe there is something to this idea that, in a recession, Voice over IP service is an affordable alternative to traditional telephone service.

In the first half of 2009, VoIP services brought in nearly $21 billion in revenue, with both residential and business services looking healthy and poised for even more growth for the second half of the year, according to a report by market research firm Infonetics Research.

Cisco's India revenues inch closer to $1 billion dollar mark

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:21:10 -0800

As Cisco, the world’s largest computer networking equipment maker, approaches around $1 billion in revenues from India, the company is hoping that increased government spending on technology will keep the momentum going.

Cisco has already won three contracts awarded by State Electricity Boards (SEBs) for computerization, each being worth around Rs 200-500 crore. These projects are part of the government’s bigger agenda for computerisation of the power sector by investing nearly Rs 10,000 crore.

U.S. Plan Proposed to Free Up TV Spectrum For Wireless Broadband Usage

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:10:51 -0800

The US Federal Communications Commission is considering a plan that would reclaim some precious airwaves from the country's television broadcasters and reinvent them as wireless broadband.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the FCC intends to release the plan on Friday as part of an effort to ensure that there's enough wireless bandwidth for the America of the future. "The record is very clear that we're facing a looming spectrum gap," said Blair Levin, who oversees the plan, part of a wider push to expand US broadband.

Asterisk PBX 1.6.1.8 Available for Download

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:56:24 -0800

The Asterisk Development Team has announced the releases of Asterisk 1.6.1.8. This release is available for immediate download at
http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/

The release of 1.6.1.8 resolves an issue where an ACL check is not present for verifying SIP INVITEs. For more information about the details of this vulnerability, please read the security advisory AST-2009-007, which was
released at the same time as this announcement.

The Asterisk 1.6.1 series is the only fully released version which contains this vulnerability. Releases from previous branches (1.6.0, 1.4, 1.2) are not affected.

In addition, Asterisk users may notice that we skipped the version number 1.6.1.7. This was intentional, in an effort to avoid confusion about what a particular release contains. Asterisk 1.6.1.7 had candidates for release made, so backtracking on those changes in a release with the same version number might be confusing. The next release candidate, which would have been 1.6.1.7-rc3, will be released with additional changes as 1.6.1.9-rc1.

For a full list of changes in the current release, please see the ChangeLog:

http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/ChangeLog-1.6.1.8

Release announcement AST-2009-007 is available at:

http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/security/AST-2009-007.pdf

Thank you for your continued support of Asterisk!

Aastra Releases 6739i Color Touch Screen IP Phone with Gigabit Ethernet

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:00:36 -0800

Aastra launches the Aastra 6739i, its most advanced desk phone to date. The company unveiled the new color touch screen phone today to hundreds of telecom resellers and service providers at the BroadSoft Connections executive conference.

In an increasingly competitive business climate, executives need access to the highest quality communication technology available to facilitate personal communications and collaboration. The feature-packed Aastra 6739i is a market-leading touch screen business desk phone, delivering high quality enterprise communications with advanced features, such as Bluetooth and dual Gigabit Ethernet.

Bank of America - "Too Broke to Fail"? | B-E-N [Digg]

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:35:28 PDT

Let them pay back their TARP debt and if they can not absorb losses and write-downs in the coming years then let them fail and prove once and for all that in our capitalist system, all companies are not “too big to fail”.

VoicePulse Expands Executive Management Team with Christopher Y. Silk

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:33:55 -0800

VoicePulse announced, today, that it has hired Christopher Y. Silk as its new Chief Executive Officer. Silk will report to the company's Board of Directors. Founder and former President/CEO, Ravi Sakaria, will serve as Chairman of the Board.

This transition allows Sakaria to focus on the company's overall direction and strategy. Sakaria sees Chris as the right person to continue and grow VoicePulse's success as an industry leader in quality VoIP products and unmatched customer service.

Libpri-1.4.10.2 for Asterisk Released

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:08:10 -0800

The Asterisk Development team is pleased to announce the release of libpri 1.4.10.2, which is available for immediate download at:

http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/libpri/libpri-1.4.10.2.tar.gz

This release resolves various issues found in libpri 1.4.10.1 and earlier versions related to scheduler events not being deleted and new ones being created on top of them. This can cause the scheduler to be overfilled, as well as other Q.921 related badness because of runaway scheduled events.

Note, this can only happen when Q.931 messages are attempted to be sent during a D-Channel state transient (D-Channel goes down and back up).

For a full list of changes in this release, please see the ChangeLog:

http://svn.asterisk.org/svn/libpri/tags/1.4.10.2/ChangeLog

Thank you for your continued support of Asterisk!

IBM Offers Asterisk PBX with Smart Cube Office-in-a-Box

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:32:47 -0800

Small businesses can buy open source IP PBX Asterisk software as an add-on to IBM’s Smart Cube office-in-a-box package. Digium, which sells a commercial version of Asterisk, customized it to integrate with Smart Cube’s software, making the phone system manageable via Smart Cube’s management interface.

24% of Tandberg Shareholders Reject Cisco Takeover Offer

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:33:36 -0800

Editor's Note: I think they are smart to play hard to get with the 800 pound gorilla we know as Cisco Systems. With the video conferencing market growing and them being a dominant player along with Polycom, they should not sellout at the first offer. They look to have a good business model, quality product and focus on providing a good product in that market. Hopefully Polycom will take note and not sellout to any firm unless it is in the best interest of Polycom as a brand and its shareholders.

Wall Street Journal - Shareholders representing 24% of the shares in Tandberg ASA on Thursday rejected Cisco Systems Inc.'s recent $3 billion offer for the video-conferencing-equipment maker, fueling hopes that the U.S.-based company might raise its bid. Swedish brokerage SEB Enskilda, which represents the 21 shareholders in the Norwegian company, said it has communicated their position to Cisco.

Where’s the value in Skype buying Gizmo5?

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:15:48 -0800

Michael Arrington broke a rumor that Skype is in talks to buy Michael Robertson’s Gizmo5. I don’t see much value. You buy a small company for five things: cash flow, IP, brand, relationships, and people. Does the firm produce cash flow? When you make half-a-penny a minute, you must sell a gazillion minutes.

When you have intense competition, manage churn. When price-per-minute falls, find non-minute sources of revenue. When market prices fall, build volume for buying power over your termination suppliers.

Avaya Uses Xen for Aura Unified Communications Platform

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:06:32 -0800

Avaya, the telecommunications outfit spun out of Lucent in 2000 and taken private by Silver Lake Partners and TPG Capital for $8.2 billion in 2007, the company that's buying Nortel's Enterprise Division for $900 million, a move that will recombine Northern Electric and Western Electric, entities that haven't been together since 1949, means to announce a virtualized unified communications solution today targeted at SMBs.

Cisco shines light on "Dark Web" of Proxies & Redirects

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:31:09 -0800

Cisco launched software that shines light on potentially troublesome websites hidden in what the US computer security firm dubbed the "Dark Web."

Cisco IronPort Web Usage Controls promise to identify as much as 90 percent of "egregious" content that has escaped detection by business IT managers and security applications because of its stealthy nature on the Internet.

Asterisk PBX 1.4.27-rc2, 1.6.0.16-rc2, 1.6.1.7-rc2, and 1.6.2.0-rc3 Now Available

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:32:10 -0800

The Asterisk Development Team has announced the next set of Asterisk release candidates for versions 1.4.27, 1.6.0.16, 1.6.1.7, and 1.6.2.0. These release candidates are available for immediate download at
http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/

The release candidates address issues that were reported by the community and resolved since the last round of bug fix releases.

For a full list of changes in the current release candidates, please see the
ChangeLogs:

http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/ChangeLog-1.4.27-rc2
http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/ChangeLog-1.6.0.16-rc2
http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/ChangeLog-1.6.1.7-rc2
http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/ChangeLog-1.6.2.0-rc3

Issues found in any of these release candidates should be reported to the Asterisk issue tracker at http://issues.asterisk.org

Thank you for your continued support of Asterisk!

AT&T Allows VoIP Over Its 3G Network for iPhone

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:31:46 -0800

Editor's Note: WOW OMG YAY THANK YOU AT&T - Do I really need to say more. This is a landmark decision and kudos have to go Ma Bell for finally giving your loyal customers what they want. With the direction the trend is going, people want data in their pocket and they want to be able to do what ever they want if they are paying such a premium for the iPhone. Hope everyone is happy, because I am, time to get my Skype number ready.

AT&T today announced it has taken the steps necessary so that Apple can enable VoIP applications on iPhone to run on AT&T’s wireless network. Previously, VoIP applications on iPhone were enabled for Wi-Fi connectivity. For some time, AT&T has offered a variety of other wireless devices that enable VoIP applications on 3G, 2G and Wi-Fi networks. AT&T this afternoon informed Apple Inc. and the FCC of its decision.

In late summer, AT&T said it was taking a fresh look at VoIP capabilities on iPhone for use on AT&T’s 3G network, consistent with its regular review of device features and capabilities to ensure attractive options for consumers.

“iPhone is an innovative device that dramatically changed the game in wireless when it was introduced just two years ago,” said Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO, AT&T Mobility & Consumer Markets. “Today’s decision was made after evaluating our customers’ expectations and use of the device compared to dozens of others we offer.”

AT&T allows customers to download or launch on their wireless devices a multitude of compatible applications directly from any lawful Internet website. Additionally, because AT&T uses GSM technology, the most pervasive and open wireless technology platform in the world, we support customers using any GSM phone that works on AT&T's frequencies.

Source: BusinessWire