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Best of open source in networking If we had to pick the most significant trend in networking today, the VoIP phenomenon might well top the list. And open source is playing no small part. While enterprises remain reluctant to rip out their tried-and-true PBXes, open source VoIP -- usually in the form of Asterisk -- is capturing business communications one small business or branch office at a time. Sooner or later, enterprises too will catch the open source VoIP bug. The cost savings and flexibility are too compelling to resist. Flag Telecom awards $1.5 billion contract to Fujitsu Flag Telecom, an international provider of bandwidth owned by Reliance Communications Ltd. in India, has awarded a US$1.5 billion contract to Fujitsu Ltd. for the construction of Flag's next generation network (NGN) submarine cable. September 4, 5:41 a.m. PDT High-fidelity VoIP Not so long ago, I wrote an article on Asterisk and open source VoIP in general. In my discussion with Mark Spencer, the founder of Digium and the Asterisk project, he recommended Polycom as the phone vendor he would choose for an Asterisk deployment. In the same article, I profiled Summer Bay Resorts, which runs Asterisk across multiple call centers and hundreds of agents, all with Polycom phones. You might think Polycom is onto something.  July 23, 3:00 a.m. PDT Vonage appeal cites Supreme Court patent ruling In its appeal of a jury verdict in the patent infringement case brought against it by Verizon, Vonage has turned to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that some analysts see as making it easier to invalidate patent claims. May 10, 9:00 a.m. PDT Update: Vonage files to vacate patent ruling Internet based phone company Vonage says a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court this week has given it new life in a crippling lawsuit with telecommunications giant Verizon. May 1, 3:06 p.m. PDT IPv6 to power the 'city of the future' The city of Harrisonburg, Virginia, will experience a wide variety of new Internet-based services, such as mobile-phone commerce and clear Internet video, with the rollout of citywide IPv6, people working with the city said Wednesday. March 28, 12:44 p.m. PST Microsoft gets into VoIP ... and confuses us Impenetrable questions I've been pondering: The difference between acute dyslexia and the way Linux programmers name their software. How Apple Store sales personnel differ from those at the Clearasil human testing lab. Whether the proliferation of Law & Order: X and Ebola virus outbreaks are somehow connected. The difference between Office Communications Server and Microsoft Response Point. March 28, 3:00 a.m. PST Open source VoIP makes the business connection Nearly three years since Jon “maddog” Hall predicted that “VoIP using an open source solution, such as Asterisk, will generate more business than the entire Linux marketplace today,” open source VoIP for the enterprise remains a wild frontier. SMB uptake has been considerable, as open source VoIP’s promise of control and cost savings make it a natural fit. But when it comes to large-scale implementations, open source voice has yet to get most enterprises to listen. March 19, 3:00 a.m. PST Case study: Asterisk proves its worth Despite Digium’s current positioning of Asterisk for the midmarket, plenty of large-scale implementations speak to the scalability and versatility of the open source IP PBX. One such rollout — that of Summer Bay Resorts, a time-share vacation property company — provides ample evidence that if the phone is the lifeblood of your business, Asterisk is more than up to the task. March 19, 3:00 a.m. PST Your Web site’s secret weapon Kenexa, a global provider of talent-hiring and-retention services and software, had a serious customer-satisfaction problem. March 19, 3:00 a.m. PST Verizon rolls out nationwide WAN service Verizon Business on Monday rolled out a nationwide WAN service, allowing large organizations to use Ethernet to connect offices spread across the U.S. March 12, 2:00 p.m. PST Avaya adds IP phones, gateways, SIP Aiming to let enterprises do more with their IP (Internet Protocol) telephony systems and keep them available when a network goes down, Avaya introduced new software, phones, and a gateway at this week's VoiceCon Spring conference. March 8, 6:04 a.m. PST Curse of the call center I was working for a small chain of electronics retailers in New Orleans when the head office in Memphis decided that we needed to replace our call center. Business had been expanding rapidly, and our home-grown call system was overwhelmed. We took bids from all the big telephony vendors for turn-key call centers, but in the end the top brass decided that it would be cheaper if we rolled our own. February 13, 3:00 a.m. PST ISP head convicted in E-Rate fraud A U.S. federal jury convicted the former owner and president of ATE Tel Solutions Inc., a telecommunications and Internet service provider, on seven of nine counts of wire fraud in a scheme to defraud the E-Rate program, the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday. February 12, 9:24 a.m. PST France Télécom targets Web 2.0 France Télécom hopes to get more out of the 15 research centers it operates around the world by bringing them together as a single structure, Orange Labs. January 18, 9:47 a.m. PST Microsoft releases beta of unified communications hub Microsoft's goal to provide a unified communications infrastructure for the enterprise moved forward Tuesday with the release of a private beta of software it sees as its communications hub. December 12, 4:14 a.m. PST Alcatel-Lucent readies for the next-gen mobile Mary Chan, president of the wireless business group at newly merged Alcatel-Lucent, isn't choosing sides in the prickly debate about next-generation mobile communication networks. December 11, 5:45 a.m. PST Microsoft IPTV: Fuzzy partnership Microsoft and newly merged Alcatel-Lucent have partnered to deliver Internet-based television technology to Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), the companies said Thursday. December 8, 4:27 a.m. PST AT&T benefits from Asia boom AT&T is positioning itself to become a key provider of global communication services in China, India and Vietnam, three of the world's fastest growing economies, executives said at a telecommunications event in Hong Kong. December 6, 8:42 a.m. PST BT to help carriers build next-gen networks BT Group hopes to recycle some of its expertise from building a next-generation all-IP (Internet Protocol) network in the U.K. by offering consultancy services to network operators in other countries. December 6, 8:09 a.m. PST A global communications giant is born: Alcatel-Lucent deal done Alcatel-Lucent, a global communications giant with combined annual revenue of more than US$24 billion, will debut Friday after a sometimes rocky engagement between Alcatel SA and Lucent Technologies Inc. November 30, 2:49 p.m. PST BT touts all-IP network benefits to enterprises Even if an 11-year-old school girl from the tiny village of Wick in South Wales was the first person to place a call over BT Group's new next-generation network, U.K. businesses will be among the big benefactors of the all-IP (Internet Protocol) network. November 29, 8:46 a.m. PST BT connects first customers to all-IP network More than 100 consumers in the U.K. village of Wick are among the first customers to be connected to BT Group's next-generation telecommunications network, which went live Tuesday. November 28, 8:39 a.m. PST In Brief: TeliaSonera links to Orange Orange Business Services, the global enterprise networking unit of France Télécom, has strengthened its footprint in the Nordic and Baltic countries through an agreement with Scandinavian telco TeliaSonera. Under the deal announced Wednesday, TeliaSonera will integrate its IP (Internet Protocol) services in its home Nordic and Baltic markets with Orange's global IP network. November 22, 8:29 a.m. PST 2006 InfoWorld 100 Awards: Telecommunications Bell Mobility www.bell.ca Solution for Direct Marketing Response Rates Project Lead: John Walker, Associate Director of Customer Insights and Analysis Project Description: Bell Mobility chose dfPower Studio from DataFlux, an end-user solution that gives both business analysts and database administrators the ability to create, manage, and enforce data quality initiatives across the enterprise. With dfPower Studio, Bell Mobility now creates custom data verification routines that have helped them to identify and eliminate tens of thousands of duplicate prospect records while improving the quality of mailing and telemarketing lists. November 13, 3:00 a.m. PST Congress sets Alcatel-Lucent hearings Another hurdle has cropped up for the merger of Alcatel SA and Lucent Technologies Inc. as the U.S. House Armed Services Committee has set a hearing on the national security implications of the deal. November 10, 10:32 a.m. PST EU telecoms try to ward off breakup moves Europe's former telecommunications monopolies warned Tuesday that any attempt to split them up would harm the European Union's competitiveness. October 10, 10:51 a.m. PDT Registrar criticizes .com contract A contract for VeriSign to operate the .com domain should include infrastructure build-out requirements and make the company justify built-in prices increases, a lawyer for the GoDaddy.com registrar said Wednesday. September 20, 11:41 a.m. PDT HP back on the couch over phone record hacks Like a good friend who has just gotten out of a terrible relationship, Hewlett-Packard seemed to be on the rebound and all the happier for it in recent months. After the departure of controversial CEO Carly Fiorina, the company has as of late shown newfound confidence and focus under new CEO Mark Hurd. But all’s still not well in the higher echelons of HP, as revealed in a filing the company made to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. September 11, 3:00 a.m. PDT Ericsson wins $1 billion contract in India Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson has bagged a contract worth about $1 billion over three years from Indian mobile services provider Bharti Airtel. August 24, 5:19 a.m. PDT Microsoft, Nortel partnership moves forward Microsoft and Nortel Networks have been busy in the month since their unified communications partnership was announced, forming joint marketing teams and planning products together. August 23, 4:12 a.m. PDT Verizon eases move to IP contact centers Enterprises that want to run an IP (Internet Protocol) contact center over the Verizon Business network won't have to bring their own gateway anymore. August 22, 5:50 a.m. PDT Avaya CEO steps down Donald Peterson, who has been chief executive officer (CEO) of Avaya Inc. since it was spun off from Lucent Technologies Inc. in 2000, stepped down from that job and the post of president on Tuesday. He will relinquish his position as chairman on Sept. 30. July 25, 12:33 p.m. PDT Experts debate merits of tiered Net traffic Should Congress enact a law that prevents telecommunications companies from charging more based on the kind of traffic they are distributing? What is at stake for enterprises that rely on the Internet? InfoWorld asked folks on either side of the debate. July 7, 3:00 a.m. PDT Battle lines drawn over net neutrality As the U.S. Congress argues the pros and cons of network neutrality, many companies doing business on the Internet say their very futures may be at stake. July 7, 3:00 a.m. PDT U.S. Enterpises: Don't be left behind on IPv6 Any enterprise that does business with Asia or the U.S. government should start using IPv6 (Internet Protocol, Version 6) as soon as possible, an advocate of the new version of IP told attendees on Wednesday at the Burton Group Catalyst conference in San Francisco. June 15, 12:48 p.m. PDT Fast growth fuels Asian telecom demand Rapid economic growth across Asia is fueling demand for telecommunications services, particularly mobile technologies and IP-based services. June 15, 6:22 a.m. PDT Africa resolves telecommunications debate over EASSY project Squabbles that delayed EASSY, the Africa submarine cable project aimed at connecting Africa to the rest of the world, have been resolved and the venture is moving ahead as planned, according to project officials. June 12, 8:10 a.m. PDT Court upholds VOIP wiretapping A U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruling requiring VOIP providers to give law enforcement agencies wiretapping capabilities is legal, a court ruled Friday. June 9, 12:09 p.m. PDT Alcatel-Lucent merger gains U.S. government approval U.S. government regulators have approved the planned merger of telecommunications giants Lucent Technologies Inc. and Alcatel SA. June 9, 10:03 a.m. PDT Avaya aims at enterprise with modular VoIP phones Avaya will unveil a series of upgradable, modular VoIP phones this week, aiming at the enterprise market. The four desktop phones in the one-X model family are designed around four types of business users. June 8, 3:00 a.m. PDT InfoWorld CTO 25: Bruce Fleming Patience and persistence always pay off. In Bruce Fleming’s role as “go-to guy” for the divisional technology office of Verizon’s federal arm, he applies both those skills as he shepherds complex projects through the military and other large government organizations, frequently under secrecy and uncertain budget conditions. June 5, 3:00 a.m. PDT InfoWorld CTO 25: John Stankey These are interesting times at AT&T. The company’s merger with SBC in November was a $16 billion deal that had “integration nightmare” written all over it, but CTO John Stankey has led the charge to combine the companion networks swiftly into a single infrastructure. “Getting rid of the duplication of two networks was a tremendous undertaking,” he says. June 5, 3:00 a.m. PDT InfoWorld CTO 25: Mark Foster In 1996, the idea of letting customers move their cell phone numbers from one provider to another was revolutionary -- or, if you asked the carriers, impossible. But government pressure forced the move, and Mark Foster was the guy who figured out how to make it work technically. He helped form NeuStar to deliver the neutral database platform that enabled portability. He quickly realized the model was extensible to Internet interoperability. June 5, 3:00 a.m. PDT InfoWorld CTO 25: Matt Bross Telecom firms have traditionally developed their services in technology silos. But Matt Bross, CTO of BT (formerly British Telecom), sees no reason to continue investing in legacy infrastructure, not when the Internet offers vast new opportunities. The former head of global engineering for MasterCard, Bross has developed the architecture for BT’s $18 billion next-generation communications network, dubbed 21CN, to be deployed in 160 countries over the next five years, one that dumps the traditional phone network in favor of broadband IP systems. June 5, 3:00 a.m. PDT Hack Tales: Keeping track of tools the wireless way “Who has that damn cart now?” During a network build-out for a large New York commercial real estate manager a few years back, that phrase got shouted often enough to become a stress mantra. May 29, 3:00 a.m. PDT Hack Tales: Keeping thin clients synced from coast to coast I once consulted for a medical-records company that was rolling out thin clients to nearly 50 offices around the United States. The goal was to build a large Citrix MetaFrame farm over WAN links to the main datacenter, which was located outside Boston, providing a Windows desktop for every user without dealing with hardware problems at each site. May 29, 3:00 a.m. PDT Hack Tales: Network auditing on a shoestring What do you do when the auditors are breathing down your neck, wanting to see an exhaustive report on the Windows network security of a 2,000-user network across eight sites? That’s easy. Break out a text editor and start writing some Perl. May 29, 3:00 a.m. PDT Hack Tales: Air-gap networking for the price of a pair of sneakers Federal IT managers face troubling times when it comes to synchronizing an air-gap network. And just in case you’re thinking “air gap” refers to a new brand of sneakers … well, you’re almost right. May 29, 3:00 a.m. PDT Peering brings IP services to wider audience Peering is poised to break down the biggest hurdle preventing the widespread and low-cost use of cutting-edge services based on IP (Internet Protocol), said speakers at the VON Europe conference in Stockholm. Those services include integrated video conferencing, media sharing, high-quality audio, and secure, integrated instant messaging. May 17, 8:15 a.m. PDT VON: 'V' is not just for voice anymore It's telling that the acronym VON isn't spelled out anywhere on the VON conference Web sites. That may be because while VON may have once stood for "voice on the 'net," today, the IP (Internet Protocol) networks that support voice services are increasingly carrying a wider array of services. May 16, 9:31 a.m. PDT Update: ICANN gives .tel domain thumbs up The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved a new top-level domain suffixed ".tel," awarding a contract to Telnic Ltd., an Internet communications company based in London. May 15, 6:56 a.m. PDT LGC kicks up in-building cell coverage Improving cell phone coverage in an office without limiting users to one carrier will get cheaper and easier with a system coming from in-building wireless vendor LGC Wireless Inc., the company is to announce Monday. May 15, 6:36 a.m. PDT Coping in a world of IP-based telecom With all the talk about on-demand software, I'm amazed there isn't as much buzz about other on-demand services, such as telecom. That may be starting to change. May 12, 3:00 a.m. PDT BT aims converged services at enterprise BT Group PLC said Wednesday it will offer enterprises IP-based phone network services by early 2007 with features similar to PBX (private-branch exchange) networks. May 11, 9:48 a.m. PDT Peer-to-peer device networking takes shape The concept of SEDs (service-enabled devices) started way back in the ‘80s with something called tuple spaces, and later took shape as Jini nder the guidance of Sun Microsystems. Jini came about when Bill Joy, Sun’s chief scientist, imagined a peer-to-peer world where every device could talk to every other device: “Hello, I’m a color printer. This is my feature set and here are my printer drivers. Would you like to access me?” May 2, 3:00 a.m. PDT Siemens lays out SOA plans Siemens Communications will announce its commitment to SOA (services-oriented architecture) at the Interop trade show in Las Vegas on Monday, revealing that it has already used SOA to create infrastructure software for enterprise IP communications. May 1, 4:02 a.m. PDT HP expands its IP licensing program Hewlett-Packard has opened an intellectual property (IP) licensing center in Singapore, hoping to generate additional revenue by licensing HP patents and other technologies to companies in the region, it said on Tuesday. April 18, 4:24 a.m. PDT In Brief: UTStarcom COO resigns UTStarcom said Thursday its chief operating officer has resigned and will leave the company in early May. April 14, 5:05 a.m. PDT NEC-Philips venture takes off The new business communications venture formed by NEC Corp. and Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV is ready for business, the companies said Wednesday. April 12, 9:25 a.m. PDT Product previews EMC rolls out entry SAN and archiving software EMC introduced the EMC clariion AX150 and AX150i storage systems and the EMC Documentum Archive Services for Email and Archive Services for Reports. The AX150 systems, available with Fibre Channel or iSCSI connectivity, support as many as 10 host servers and scale from 750GB to 6TB of SATA II storage. Pricing starts at $5,600. The new Archiving Services offerings are based on a unified archiving platform for collecting, retaining, securing, and discovering all kinds of information, including e-mail, reports, documents, images, Web content, video, and transactional data. Prices vary by configuration. EMC Clariion AX150 and EMC Documentum Archive Services, EMC April 10, 3:00 a.m. PDT EU mobile price regulations displease operators Anticipating fierce opposition from operators, the European Commission Monday opened a six week-long consultation about its plans to slash the cost of using a mobile phone on the move. April 3, 9:46 a.m. PDT Collapse of Check Point/Sourcefire deal raises questions Faced with resistance from the U.S. government’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), Israeli software company Check Point Software Technologies put its $225 million offer to purchase IPS (intrusion prevention software) vendor Sourcefire on hold March 23, raising the specter of heightened government oversight of mergers and acquisitions. April 3, 3:00 a.m. PDT Alcatel, Lucent agree to merge Alcatel SA and Lucent Technologies Inc. have reached a definitive agreement to merge, they said Sunday. April 2, 8:04 a.m. PDT Nortel expands services to carriers Nortel Networks is putting extra effort behind not just selling gear to carriers and enterprises but helping them deploy and run their networks. March 27, 12:16 p.m. PST The hidden challenges of federated identity For years, companies have kept stores of identity information about employees, customers, and partners. These databases and directories are critical components of a company’s identity infrastructure. But as businesses push to create new products and increase productivity, they have discovered that they often must cooperate to provide the services their customers and employees demand. March 24, 3:00 a.m. PST Scaling a federated identity infrastructure Different kinds of organizations approach the problem of scaling a federated identity implementation in different ways. When you’re federating with one or two partners, hammering out the legal arrangements and assigning risk and liability is done one partner at a time. Even if technology standards provide universal system interoperability, the lawyers are likely to approach each agreement as a one-off task. Let’s call this model “peer-to-peer federation.” March 24, 3:00 a.m. PST Do you believe in the power of telecom mergers? In a year when top-tier Oscars went to niche-market movies, why are business plaudits going to do a blockbuster deal such as AT&T’s just-announced $67 billion acquisition of BellSouth? If scale doesn’t work in movies anymore, why should it work in business? March 17, 3:00 a.m. PST Modern strategies for managing Microsoft Exchange Let’s face it: administering a Microsoft-based network inevitably means dealing with Exchange Server. Microsoft continues to lead the messaging market in new-account sales “by a significant margin,” according to Erica Rugullies, principal analyst at Forrester Research. That’s amazing success when you consider that today, with e-mail already a staple of every corporate network, leading the market isn’t about finding new customers so much as it is about taking them away from someone else. March 16, 3:00 a.m. PST Microsoft: IPTV to reach critical mass this year At least four major telecommunications carriers will be offering services on Microsoft's IPTV platform to hundreds of thousands of users by the end of the year, a Microsoft executive predicted on Friday at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany. March 10, 1:17 p.m. PST Cisco unifies IP Communications products Cisco Systems is bundling up its tools for all kinds of communication in enterprises and giving the set an appropriately broad brand name: the Cisco Unified Communications system. March 6, 4:21 a.m. PST AT&T to buy BellSouth in $67 billion deal AT&T on Sunday announced a deal to acquire U.S. telecommunications operator BellSouth Corp. in an all-stock deal valued at $67 billion. March 6, 4:12 a.m. PST Product Previews Fluke Networks brings greater visibility to VoIP Fluke Networks is enhancing the VoIP module of its visual UpTime Select network and application management solution, offering additional tools for monitoring, managing, and optimizing VoIP performance. Network managers can, for example, calculate and track MOS (mean opinion score) for each call on a continual basis, enabling them to troubleshoot both real-time and intermittent performance issues. The new release also incorporates a number of in-depth performance reports. The release is available now at no charge to existing UpTime Select VoIP module customers. For new customers, pricing begins at $795 per site. Visual UpTime Select, Fluke Networks February 27, 3:00 a.m. PST Japan gets high-def Super Bowl coverage via IP link NTT Communications has used its IP (Internet Protocol) backbone for high-definition transmission of a live sporting event from the U.S. to Japan for the first time, it said Wednesday. February 8, 4:21 a.m. PST Verizon expands Ethernet footprint worldwide Enterprises can use familiar Ethernet interfaces to tap into Verizon Communications' global network from Europe and Asia following an expansion announced Wednesday by the carrier's Verizon Business unit. February 1, 2:12 p.m. PST Microsoft merges enterprise IM and Exchange groups Microsoft Corp. is merging its Exchange and Real-Time Collaboration (RTC) groups into a new unit called the Unified Communications Group, the company announced Monday. The change is aimed at aligning development work on Microsoft's e-mail platform with that done around other communications systems like instant messaging, Web conferencing and phone/VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol). January 30, 1:06 p.m. PST Product Previews WebEx Opens Tap to Systems Management After handing it a wrench with the WebEx Support Center, software-as-a-service specialist WebEx is now offering an entire toolbox. Developed in partnership with Everdream, WebEx System Management Services will allow IT organizations to manage Windows desktop systems through a hosted Web application that integrates asset management, software distribution, patch management, virus protection, and automated online backup capabilities. System Management Services will be available Feb. 1 and cost from $5 to $15 per computer per month, depending on services. WebEx System Management Services, WebEx January 30, 3:00 a.m. PST IT will give up control of the network As we look at all the changes taking place on the Internet during the past several years, I think we can boil it down to two simple observations. First, the volume of traffic is increasing exponentially: E-mail, IM, and RSS all mean more connections. Second, each connection is moving a great deal more data, including multimedia, voice, and video. January 10, 3:00 a.m. PST A first look at Windows Compute Cluster Server It used to be that building a usable compute cluster took plenty of money, skills, and space in the datacenter. Although creating the actual applications that run on the cluster can still be difficult, nowadays building a Linux-based cluster is generally quite simple. Commercial and open source clustering packages abound with features, open protocols, and streamlined installs. No surprise, then, that Microsoft wants a piece of this potentially lucrative market. January 9, 3:00 a.m. PST Nortel to lose another executive Nortel Networks Corp. will lose another high-level executive, the telecommunications equipment company announced Tuesday. Clent Richardson, chief marketing officer (CMO) at Nortel since October 2004, will leave the firm March 1, 2006. December 20, 9:19 a.m. PST BCE to sell stake in Canadian IT service provider CGI In a move to refocus on its core telecommunications business, BCE Inc., Canada's largest telecommunications company, has agreed to sell its stake in Canadian IT service provider CGI Group Inc. December 19, 2:53 a.m. PST US senator's bill would overhaul FCC's authority A U.S. senator has introduced a bill that would limit the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's (FCC's) policy-making power over telecommunications and broadband providers. The bill, in many cases, would allow the FCC to step in only when there's "clear and convincing evidence" that competition has failed. December 16, 9:33 a.m. PST The two-way media Web For a blog entry this week, I wanted to quote an interesting remark by Iona CTO Eric Newcomer on how traditional distributed computing differs from XML-based Web services. If he’d made that remark on his blog, I’d simply have quoted the text. Instead, however, he made it on a Webcast published by SYS-CON.TV. Creating the video equivalent of a pull quote is much harder than just selecting, copying, and pasting text, but it’s doable. As I worked out the solution, I reflected on the unholy alliance that Silicon Valley is forming with Hollywood. December 14, 3:00 a.m. PST Sex.eu tops list of domain name requests Sex.eu was the most sought after domain name using the European Union’s own TLD (top-level domain) on the opening day for registrations. According to data supplied by EURid, the body responsible for registering .eu domain names, sex.eu received the highest number of applications. December 7, 12:26 p.m. PST Beyond interactive voice response I like to say that human beings are the exception handlers for all automated workflows. But, as those of us who endure automated customer service know only too well, human exception handlers are getting harder and harder to find. So a couple of months ago, when my wife forwarded me a link to a list of IVR (interactive voice response) cheats -- that is, ways to short-circuit voice menus and get directly to human agents -- I had a hunch this idea would sprout legs. December 7, 3:00 a.m. PST MCI pitches 'comprehensive' network security service MCI Inc. on Tuesday announced the upcoming release of a network-security managed service, saying it will be the most comprehensive package available. December 6, 8:36 a.m. PST HP unveils telecom triple-play software Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) Wednesday announced a new software product and a multimedia service designed to help telecommunications providers move to the all-digital networks needed to offer voice, data and multimedia services on the Internet. November 30, 9:46 a.m. PST Why data synchronization still matters The physics of data management used to dictate that your data could be either consistent or highly available but never both at the same time. The discipline of data synchronization sits uncomfortably on the horns of this Heisenbergian dilemma. As times change, though, so do the trade-offs associated with synchronization and its uses. November 30, 3:00 a.m. PST NEC, Philips plan enterprise telecom venture NEC and Koninklijke Philips Electronics have reached a basic agreement on the acquisition of a majority stake of Philips' business communications unit by NEC, they said Tuesday. November 29, 4:26 a.m. PST Moving toward mesh networks The dream of broadband connectivity that’s as ubiquitous as the air you breathe still is not reality, and perhaps it would be a cruel pun to tell you not to hold your breath. November 22, 3:00 a.m. PST Linksys launches IP communications platform for SMBs Cisco's Linksys division announced Monday a hosted IP communications platform for small businesses that offers voice, video, data networking, business applications, and high speed Internet access through a single connection from a service provider. November 14, 4:30 a.m. PST Mobile data usage is on the rise Mobile data usage, including Internet access and wireless e-mail, is up compared to last year, according to a study by A.T. Kearney Inc. and the University of Cambridge's Judge Business School. November 7, 3:51 a.m. PST Cellular data services ramp up If you’re susceptible to advertising sales pitches, you’d best -- like Ulysses’ crew -- plug up your ears. Otherwise, you will soon hear the siren call from the cell phone carriers pitching their newest data services. November 1, 3:00 a.m. PST Level 3, Cogent resolve peering dispute Two feuding top-tier ISPs (Internet service providers) said Friday that they have struck a deal to renew their traffic exchange agreement and avert a repeat of a showdown that blacked out connections between their customers earlier this month. October 28, 9:37 a.m. PDT Qualcomm accused of anticompetitive conduct in EU Six leading mobile telecommunications vendors have filed complaints to the European Commission charging Qualcomm Inc. with anticompetitive behavior. October 28, 9:10 a.m. PDT Verizon revenue up, income flat Verizon Communications Inc. reported Thursday net income of US$1.9 billion for the third quarter of 2005, with income essentially flat from the third quarter of 2004. October 27, 5:42 a.m. PDT VeriSign settles ICANN lawsuit VeriSign Inc. has settled a breach-of-contract lawsuit accusing the organization that oversees the Internet's addressing system of delaying new domain-name services, the company announced Monday. October 24, 2:53 p.m. PDT VOIP threats defined by alliance For all the developments around enterprise voice over IP solutions, there has been only scattered interest in the related potential security threats but the Voice over IP Security Alliance (VOIPSA) has shown a spotlight on problems that IT managers ought to be concerned about. October 24, 10:58 a.m. PDT Update: Cingular to deploy Lucent network service Cingular Wireless has awarded Lucent Technologies a four-year agreement to help the largest U.S. mobile operator build an IMS (Internet Protocol multimedia subsystem) for developing and delivering subscriber services, the companies said Monday. October 17, 12:07 p.m. PDT BellSouth, Sprint Nextel to link national data network BellSouth has teamed up with Sprint Nextel to provide nationwide data services across the U.S. in a move that could help BellSouth compete with other carriers that are merging to create giant companies. October 10, 8:37 a.m. PDT > Networking > Telecom > Telephony |
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