Why we should care about Net Neutrality
Posted by:Posted By AVAD Business Editor on November 19, 2009
I came across a great article on Broadsoft's blog about Net Neutrality. There is a huge power struggle going on between the companies that provide internet service and companies that provide services that require the internet.
Voice over IP (VoIP) is just one of the thousands of services that require an internet connection.
One of the biggest issues being contested is the ability of internet service providers to favor their own content or limit access to content based on type. For example, Comcast, one of the leading internet service providers also provides internet phone service or VoIP, without a truely nuetral internet, Comcast would be able to block other VoIP Providers such as Vonage.
Allowing internet service providers to limit consumers access to certain types of content, or favor their own brands would have a chilling effect on our entire economy.
For those of you who are not familiar with Broadsoft, BroadSoft is the leading, worldwide innovator of Voice over IP (VoIP) applications that is transforming how people connect, communicate and collaborate.
Vonage settles investigation for $3 million
Posted by:Posted By AVAD Business Editor on November 17, 2009
NEW YORK — Voice over IP phone service provider Vonage Holdings Corp. has agreed to pay $3 million to 32 states to settle an investigation into some of its business practices.
In a filing with the Securities Exchange Commission, Vonage said it also agreed to provide refunds to affected customers.
Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden said his office received complaints from consumers who said they found it difficult to cancel their service with Vonage amid pressure from the company to keep their accounts.
In Texas officials said that Vonage also failed to clearly tell potential customers that they needed high-speed Internet service to use Vonage, which offers cheaper calls by sending voice data over the Internet. Officials said those unable to use the service had to pay cancellation and other fees. Continue Reading: Vonage settles investigation for million
Report: VoIP Market Grows Despite Ecocomoy
Posted by:Posted By AVAD Technologies Business Editor on 11-4-2009
Worldwide, the VoIP market continues to grow despite one of the worst global economic recessions.
In the 3rd quarter of 2009, VoIP Providers brought in revenue of $21 billion. The demand for VoIP phone service continues to be strong on both the residential and business sides. Residential VoIP continued to expand at healthy 14% growth rate, while business VoIP revenue is increasing by a healthy 26%.
For more:Read this release from Infonetics
Posted By AVAD Technologies Business Editor on 2009-28-10
IDG News Service - Cybercriminals have found a new launching pad for their scams: the phone systems of small and medium-sized businesses across the U.S.
In recent weeks, they have hacked into dozens of Open-Source Premise Based VoIP telephone systems across the country, using them as a way to contact unsuspecting bank customers and trick them into divulging their bank account numbers and passwords.
Attacks on Premises based open source VoIP systems built on the Asterisk have been targets of attacks for the past year.
Hosted VoIP PBX Industry News
Posted By AVAD Technologies Business Editor on 2009-06-01
With the deal that Broadsoft has struck with CounterPath (maker of the Eyebeam soft phone), it looks like Broadsoft has finally accepted that the soft phone they have developed to work with their platform was not that good.
We at AVAD Technologies, a Hosted VoIP PBX VoIP Provider, that uses the Broadsoft VoIP platform are extremely happy that CounterPath's Bria Soft phone now interoperates seamlessly with the Broadworks Hosted VoIP PBX platform.
Many of our customers have expressed an interest in a functional softphone that works with our platform, and now we have it. You can purchase the Bria for Broadworks directly from Counterpath's on-line store. The price for the Bria Soft phone is $49.95.
For those of you that are interested, here is a link to the Broadsoft/CounterPath announcement.
Hosted VoIP Provider News
Posted By AVAD Technologies Hosted VoIP Business Editor on 2009-06-01
Packet8, a provider of Hosted VoIP PBX phone service today eliminated their Freedom Plan which allowed free on-network international calls. On-network means that callers could make free calls to any country as long as they were calling another Packet8 phone.
At first glance, this may not seem like such a big deal, because Packet8 customers could only make free phone calls to other Packet8 customers under this plan. The reason it is a big deal is that many Packet8 customers specifically bought the service with the idea that they would send a Packet8 phone to office locations, family and friends outside the US and would not have to pay for international calls. In addition, in order to use Packet8's service, customers are required to purchase proprietary Packet8 IP Phones that only work on the Packet8 system.
As you can imagine, this has angered many of Packet8's customers. The bloggers and Twitter's are very angry and are not holding back their feelings regarding this latest move by Packet8. A class action lawsuit is a possibility.
Telecom May Not Accept Stimulus
Posted by:Posted By AVAD Business Editor on 2009-04-05
Telecommunications companies are concerned that the Government's $8 billion broadband stimulus plan will force them to open their networks to other providers.
Many of the largest telecommunications companies are reluctant to ask for federal money. With the onerous rules that are attached to the stimulus money, some telecom companies may pass on the early funding rounds entirely or ultimately reject the funds entirely.
The largest telecom companies are concerned that once finalized, the program will include regulations that will require them to open their equipment to competitors or otherwise hamper their ability to manage broadband networks, according to people familiar with the industry.
Posted By AVAD Business Editor on 2009-10-03
BroadSoft, Inc., the leading worldwide provider of VoIP applications, today introduced new product enhancements to its BroadWorks® VoIP application platform that allow telecommunications service providers to simplify the deployment of hosted business communications solutions. BroadWorks Device Management
BroadSoft® has enhanced BroadWorks with new device management functionality that enables service providers to easily pre-configure end-user access devices. This new capability solves one of the most complex and time-consuming phases of delivering VoIP services — provisioning end devices. Traditionally, providers need to either pre-provision devices before shipment, rely on standalone FTP servers to store files or provision each phone at the customer site, all of which take time and require experienced technicians. Read More→
Posted By AVAD Business Editor on 2009-02-18
The struggling economy will slow the growth of Voice over IP (VoIP), but deployments remain wide-ranging at mitigated levels, reports In-Stat.
Telephony players continue to post encouraging growth numbers despite the economic environment. The VoIP segment in particular seems primed for ongoing growth, in spite of otherwise unfavorable economic conditions.
Broadsoft improves web 2.0
Posted by:Posted By AVAD Business Editor on 2009-02-04
GAITHERSBURG, MD - February 18, 2009 — BroadSoft Inc., the leading worldwide provider of VoIP applications, today announced it has teamed with IBM to bring communication service providers (CSPs) the industry's most powerful, standards-based application infrastructure to support the rapid creation of rich new Web 2.0-oriented communications services.
Traditionally,CSPs have relied on proprietary vendor solutions and custom systems integration to develop integrated voice applications. Through its Xtended program, which was launched to drive the integration of voice and Web 2.0 using established Internet standards, BroadSoft® enables CSPs to offer enhanced, productivity-improving services that extend the value of their telephony offering into mainstream business and consumer applications and drive new services revenue. Powerful Joint Development Environment and Rich New Services.
Verizon Pulls the Plug on VoiceWing
Posted by:Posted By AVAD Business Editor on 2009-01-27
Verizon officially pull the plug on its VoiceWing VoIP service. Notices were sent out to customers informing them the service will be discontinued on March 31, 2009.
DSLReports says VoiceWing is a re-branded version of Delta Three's Voice over IP service, so this is likely a damage control move given Delta Three's ongoing financial problems. Verizon stopped marketing VoiceWing a long time ago.
It looks like Verizon will be rolling out their own Fios based VoIP Service.
I am hearing and reading that Packet8 has experienced a major outage today in both the business and residential VoIP services divisions. In July of last year, Packet8 had a major outage that largely affected their residential customers. During the summers outage Packet8 was able to fail over their business customers to their residential service. The residential customers were not so fortunate.
It is easy to bash Packet8 because they are having an outage today. Customers of any VoIP provider should be aware that while the technology is very stable, it is not 100% reliable, nothing is 100% reliable. If it is really important that your phone system be 100% reliable (i.e. hospital, police etc), then you should build redundancy into your system.
Redundancy adds to the cost of operating your system and given the current economic climate, most companies are unwilling or unable to pay for redundancy.
VoIP outages generally don't last that long and they have become less frequent. If you can't live with even the smallest outage then build redundancy into your system, otherwise hope the outage does not last too long. In some fields 100% redundancy is a must, Sky Diving is one that comes to mind.
VoIP: Dead or Alive?
Posted by:Posted By AVAD Business Editor on 2009-01-08
Over the holidays some of the industry's most well know VoIP pundits have been debating the future of Voice over IP. The consensus is evenly split, which means there is no consensus.
Voice over IP is not going away - ever. If you need evidence of this fact, just do a search on Twitter for VoIP and the IPhone and you will see a lot of buzz about this topic.
Another indication that VoIP is not dead is the percentage of new business phone installations that are VoIP versus traditional PBX's. While there are no hard numbers on this topic, evidence indicates that a vast majority of businesses are opting for VoIP.
It is also a safe assumption that most business will consider VoIP for all new phone system installations and upgrades. That is phenomenal statistic considering that most people had not even heard the term VoIP 10-years ago.
Here is a link to a well written analysis of "is VoIP Dead or Alive"
Broadsoft to Acquire Sylantro
Posted by:Date: December 19, 2008
By: AVAD Administrator
BroadSoft Inc. is expected to announce its acquisition of Sylantro Systems. Multiple sources with insight into BroadSoft and Sylantro say it's a done deal. BroadSoft views the acquisition as a major boon with great respect being given to Sylantro's past accomplishments in the marketplace, as well as its current brand strength. Immediately, Broadsoft will gain 50 new high profile customers from including AT&T, Qwest, Swisscom and NuVox. Executives at BroadSoft describe Sylantro as a "very strong competitor" for the past 10-years and say they are "fortunate" to be able to acquire such a strong brand. Terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed, but appear to be quite favorable. BroadSoft believes it will be able to generate positive cash flow from the acquisition in 2009, a feat it attributes to the relative small price it paid for Sylantro. Sources say that Sylantro was running out of cash and had no prospects for raising additional capital. For Sylantro, this was basically a shotgun wedding and was the only way to save jobs for some employees and spare existing customers the uncertainty of a bankruptcy filing. Sylantro's primary offices are in Bangalore, India and is listed as a "key asset" in the acquisition. In addition, BroadSoft expects to keep a (smaller) office in Sylantro's Silicon Valley HQ and keep parts of the sales organization.BroadSoft Cuts Jobs As Sales Slow
Posted by:Date: December 6, 2008
By: AVAD Administrator
BroadSoft, a Gaithersburg, Md.,-based VoIP application platform maker, has cut about a dozen positions, according to a source familiar with the company. The cuts are said to have taken place in its sales, product management and engineering divisions, in both the Americas and the EMEA region. BroadSoft had about 300 employees, so a dozen cuts represents a fairly small percentage. What’s significant is the reasons behind them — sales have started to slow, not just for BroadSoft but for other vendors as well. Original Article
