|
|
Free Newsletters
|
|
|
|
|
|
Vonage settles Sprint's patent claim VoIP provider Vonage Holdings has settled a patent dispute with Sprint Nextel by agreeing to pay Sprint about $80 million, the two companies announced Monday. Jajah cries foul over eBay's block Web-site buttons from Internet telephony startup Jajah that allowed eBay buyers and sellers to initiate phone calls have been banned by eBay, a move that Jajah charges is unjustified. October 4, 1:05 p.m. PDT Skype CEO steps down Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom has handed over his CEO title to become non-executive chairman of the board of directors of this eBay unit, whose impact on its parent company remains an open question. October 1, 11:23 a.m. PDT Far EasTone may promote WiMax handsets, but not Skype Far EasTone Telecommunications doesn't plan to shy away from WiMax handsets once its high-speed wireless network is up and running in southern Taiwan, but the company certainly won't welcome Skype's popular Internet telephony software. September 28, 7:04 a.m. PDT VoIP provider Jajah gives subscribers toll-free Internet calling VoIP service provider Jajah is offering its subscribers toll-free call buttons that they can place on their Web sites, enabling site visitors to immediately set up phone calls to Jajah subscribers in 122 countries. September 28, 6:51 a.m. PDT Update: Vonage loses Sprint-Nextel patent suit, plans appeal A federal court ruled on Tuesday that struggling VoIP provider Vonage infringed on patents owned by Sprint Nextel. September 25, 2:30 p.m. PDT Verizon Business adds to SLAs Verizon Communications' Business unit has expanded its service-level agreement (SLA) options, allowing customers to invoke their SLAs on the last mile of their network connection, even in cases where Verizon doesn't own those pipes. September 24, 8:12 a.m. PDT From big iron to white boxes, Nationwide goes virtualFrom big iron to white boxes, Nationwide goes virtual While many IT shops see virtualization as a question of adopting EMC's VMware on servers running Windows or Linux, Nationwide Insurance has adopted the technology for both x86-based and mainframe-hosted servers. After all, notes Buzz Woeckener, the company's zLinux/Unix server manager, virtualization was invented for mainframes.  September 24, 3:00 a.m. PDT Fear of insider threats hits home The more money that companies spend on securing their IT operations from external attack, the more it seems they become aware that the potential threat posed by their own employees remains their most significant risk. September 18, 10:42 a.m. PDT Nokia targets businesses with dual-mode E51 mobile phone Nokia released on Tuesday the newest addition to its E-series lineup of mobile phones for businesses, revamping the user interface for easier navigation, executives said during a London product launch. September 18, 8:19 a.m. PDT Skype warns users of Windows worm Skype users are under attack from a new worm that spreads through the peer-to-peer Internet phone application's chat feature. September 10, 7:05 a.m. PDT 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. September 10, 3:00 a.m. PDT Introducing the 2007 InfoWorld Bossies Not too long ago, open source meant starving developers; scant documentation; an ugly, outdated Web site; and software that lived in perpetual beta. Now open source software is becoming big business. “Now hiring” is a common sight on project home pages, and .org and SourceForge sites that used to point straight to source code archives are redirected to .com URLs that celebrate the commercial success of what started out as collaborations among unpaid coders of like mind. September 10, 3:00 a.m. PDT Unified communications: Here at last? While Todd Sharp is driving down the highway between Charlotte and Atlanta, a new sales order triggers a lookup for the customer phone number and salesperson (that would be Todd) assigned to it. The system then polls Siemens OpenScape UC (unified communications) software and checks Todd’s presence status, discovering that he’s working remotely and available only on his cell. OpenScape kicks off a VoIP call to Todd’s cell phone and, using a text-to-speech engine, reads the sales order over the phone. It then prompts Todd to press 1 to autodial the customer. Minutes after the order arrived, Todd is thanking the customer from his car. September 4, 3:00 a.m. PDT Tata to aid India's telecoms expansion India's largest outsourcer Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. has landed a US$140 million contract from India's large state-owned telecommunications services provider, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., for the deployment of next-generation networks in the country. August 30, 7:15 a.m. PDT Paying Skype users get a week's free VoIP service Skype is offering a week of free service to paying customers who may have been affected by the two-day outage of its Internet telephony service last week. August 23, 5:31 a.m. PDT Microsoft: Skype outage shows work to be done A Microsoft executive addressed the recent Skype outage on Tuesday by comparing VoIP to early automobiles in a horse-drawn world. August 21, 2:36 p.m. PDT Verizon Business rolls out VoIP enhancements Verizon Communications' Business unit will launch a VoIP service for customers of its Hosted IP Centrex package that will give users access to new features like text messaging and calendar synchronization. August 21, 2:23 p.m. PDT Skype offers more details of 'perfect storm' outage The situation that prevented millions of people from accessing Skype's Internet telephony service late last week was a "perfect storm" and should not reoccur, the company said Tuesday. August 21, 5:42 a.m. PDT Microsoft, others scramble for spotlight at VoiceCon Microsoft has licensed its RT Audio Codec for IP (Internet Protocol) voice calls to major hardware vendors including Intel, Texas Instruments, and Polycom, the company is set to announce Tuesday at the VoiceCon conference. It joins several vendors using the event as a showcase for IP telephony advancements. August 21, 4:19 a.m. PDT Google struggles with phone number 'for life' Google's GrandCentral Communications is finding it tricky to keep its promise to provide its clients with a single phone number "for life." August 20, 4:08 p.m. PDT Skype users don't buy outage explanation eBay's explanation for last week's failure of its Skype communication service has left many users still wondering what caused the worst outage in Skype's five-year history. August 20, 3:11 p.m. PDT Skype says crash followed Windows security update The widespread failure of Skype's Internet telephony service last week happened when millions of Windows users tried to log in to the system at the same time, after downloading a software update from Microsoft and rebooting their machines, Skype said Monday. August 20, 6:54 a.m. PDT SMB technology: Replacing in-house software with applications in the cloud In the near future, there's only one way to go for SMBs when it comes to purchasing business software -- and that's out of house. Whether it's full-on SaaS (software as a service), where users access all facets of the application through a browser, or a hosted product (including hosted Exchange, where only the server component is off-site and users employ a standard desktop client such as Outlook), either model is simply too cost-effective for SMBs to ignore. August 20, 3:00 a.m. PDT Processors: Dividing chips into many virtual cores The current approach taken by x86 CPUs -- to stuff as many processor cores and as much cache memory as will fit on one chip -- will prove impossible to scale beyond a certain point. And adding more, big, hot processor cores may not be the best fit for server roles that call for managing large workloads over long periods of time. August 20, 3:00 a.m. PDT Pundits on parade: What’s next in tech You’ve heard of Christmas in July, that classic advertising gimmick designed to lure shoppers into stores despite the oppressive heat and humidity. We’ll, we’ve got New Year’s in August, which invites you to stay indoors and read “The next big things in IT” -- 15 predictions about the future of technology. August 20, 3:00 a.m. PDT Update: Skype outage continues, business users affected Almost 36 hours after the problem caused widespread outages in eBay Inc.'s Skype service, engineers continue to work to fully restore this extremely popular Internet telephony and instant messaging service, while many business users deal with work disruptions. August 17, 6:22 p.m. PDT eBay says Skype was not attacked Skype has not been attacked, eBay said Friday, dispelling rumors that Russian hackers took down its popular online telephony service. August 17, 12:00 p.m. PDT Sourcefire acquires ClamAV open-source anti-malware project Network security specialist Sourcefire announced Friday that it has acquired ClamAV, an open-source gateway anti-malware project whose technologies are used in the products of a number of other vendors. August 17, 8:58 a.m. PDT Skype VOIP problems may continue throughout the day Skype is still trying to restore service to millions of its customers almost 24 hours after they began to experience problems logging in to the VOIP service. August 17, 5:15 a.m. PDT Outage of Skype's VoIP service appears to be over A log-in problem that shut many users out of Skype's popular VoIP service for nearly 14 hours appears to be over, but the company said more work remains to be done. August 17, 4:14 a.m. PDT Bug hits Skype's peer-to-peer network A software bug has affected Skype's peer-to-peer network, preventing users in some parts of the world from logging on to its widely used VoIP service. August 16, 7:42 a.m. PDT Vonage battles to stay in the VoIP game Vonage Holdings has "substantially completed" the deployment of work-arounds for two of three VoIP patents claimed by Verizon Communications, Vonage announced Thursday. August 9, 9:15 a.m. PDT Former SunRocket customers struggle with new VOIP provider Customers of SunRocket, the VOIP company that recently folded, may have hoped their troubles were over when two competitors stepped up to offer them service in the absence of the failed provider. August 9, 5:52 a.m. PDT Nothing sure but death and the Internet tax debate As a federal ban on discriminatory and access taxes on the Internet approaches a Nov. 1 expiration date, Congress is once again embroiled in a question that comes up every three or four years: To what degree does the Internet merit special federal protection from state and local tax collectors? July 27, 5:15 a.m. PDT SunRocket buys time for former VoIP customers Former SunRocket customers were given 10 days Thursday to sign up with another carrier and have their phone numbers ported, the company winding down the failed VoIP business said. July 26, 5:57 p.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 VoIP woes: Losing service without warning On Monday evening, my wife reached me on my mobile phone. She was spending a long weekend with her family in Maine. July 19, 11:33 a.m. PDT Work-around puts Skype on the iPhone A complex remote control work-around has achieved what every geek wants: running Skype on an iPhone. July 12, 7:28 a.m. PDT Nokia adds Skype to N800 tablet Nokia introduced Skype Internet-calling software for its N800 Wi-Fi tablet on Wednesday, providing another alternative to using a cell phone, while a debate in the U.S. over what networks such devices may be able to use in the future heated up. July 11, 2:02 p.m. PDT European Commission pushes Germany on telecom access The European Commission asked the German regulatory authority, the Federal Network Agency, Monday to do more to ensure a level playing field in the market for high-speed optical fiber connections to the home or office. June 25, 9:49 a.m. PDT ITC denies stay on Qualcomm ban The U.S. International Trade Commission has denied a request by Qualcomm to stay an ITC ban on the importation of some Qualcomm chips and cell phones into the U.S. while the company continues its appeal in a patent infringement case filed against it by Broadcom. June 22, 8:31 a.m. PDT T-Mobile, Truphone: disconnected over VOIP A U.K. startup specializing in offering Internet telephone service via certain Nokia Wi-Fi enabled cellphones is making few friends with mobile operators, signalling tension ahead in the high stakes mobile phone industry. June 19, 9:48 a.m. PDT Raketu to add mobility to Web-based VoIP Raketu Communications will add two new mobile phone features to its integrated communications, entertainment, and social networking service in a move to attract consumers on the go. June 15, 8:10 a.m. PDT Lawsuits, founder could derail Inter-Tel acquisition Several class action lawsuits and a revolt by the founder threaten to derail a proposed $732 million acquisition of IP communications company Inter-Tel. June 14, 11:06 a.m. PDT 2007 InfoWorld CTO 25: Robert Gourley Imagine merging 11 companies’ IT departments, creating a standard communications platform that can withstand battlefield conditions, and launching an SOA effort all at the same time. And having it in operation just two years later. That was the challenge Robert Gourley faced as CTO of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), which gathers, analyzes, coordinates, and distributes intelligence data for the U.S. armed forces and in partnership with various civilian spy agencies. June 6, 3:00 a.m. PDT U.S. soldiers face tough VOIP call American soldiers in South Korea face a tough call on using Internet telephony in the country. May 31, 9:19 a.m. PDT OCS 2007 doesn't spell doom for VoIP I should have gone to law school. If I had, I could right now be planning where to build my new summer home, 'cause you know I'd be on Microsoft's team getting ready to sue anyone who might be using a vaguely Redmond-resembling code module buried somewhere in one of my open source apps or OSes. Cha-ching. May 30, 3:00 a.m. PDT Telephony vendors line up behind Microsoft If Microsoft is muscling in on enterprise telephony vendors' turf, most of those companies right now are just trying to get along. May 22, 4:53 a.m. PDT Government filtering of online content on the rise As more people use the Internet to inform themselves, more governments around the world want to filter what they read, according to an academic study. May 18, 7:12 a.m. PDT Startup's DNS server boosts VOIP and media streaming U.K. startup 3C has launched what it calls the world's fastest authoritative DNS server, capable of answering over a million queries per second on a single CPU. May 16, 7:00 a.m. PDT U.S. ISPs slam into wiretap deadline U.S. broadband and VOIP providers on Monday hit a deadline to prove they could accommodate law-enforcement wiretaps. May 15, 5:05 a.m. PDT Europe's mobile advances Smartphone VoIPIf, until now, most smartphone users have associated mobile Internet with writing e-mail, surfing the Web, or sending pictures, they could easily get hooked on cheap VoIP calls. May 14, 8:49 a.m. PDT Microsoft shows off new unified communications phones Microsoft is launching a qualification program for phones that are compatible with its unified communications products. May 14, 5:35 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 Siemens expands OpenScape line As unified communications moves from the bleeding edge to the mainstream, Siemens Communications is set to expand its OpenScape platform into a line of three products, including a less expensive one with a focused set of features. May 8, 7:38 a.m. PDT Court rejects Vonage request for retrial A U.S. federal appeals court has rejected Vonage's request that it order a lower court to retry a patent-infringement case against the company, Vonage confirmed Thursday. May 3, 11:56 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 Experts: Patent ruling could reopen Vonage case Legal experts say that a ruling this week by the U.S. Supreme Court could give new life to Internet phone company Vonage's claims that it has been the victim of overly generous patent rulings. May 1, 2:28 p.m. PDT Verizon Business to ensure VoIP quality Verizon Communications' Verizon Business division now guarantees the quality of VoIP calls on its global VPN service. May 1, 12:54 p.m. PDT Skype your way to learning Chinese Interested in learning Chinese, but don't have the money or time to study in China? Some teachers are turning to Skype for help. April 30, 1:45 p.m. PDT FaceTime offers Skype manager for business A new security product has been released that manages certain aspects of Skype's VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) application, which may assuage fears from IT managers that the Skype program may save on phone bills but pose a security risk. April 25, 8:43 a.m. PDT Vonage gets permanent stay in patent case A U.S. appeals court has granted Vonage a permanent stay of a lower court injunction barring it from signing up new customers. Earlier this month, the lower court had ordered Vonage to stop marketing its VoIP service to new customers after it lost a patent lawsuit brought by Verizon. April 24, 11:04 a.m. PDT Research firm: Rising tide lifts network spending Both enterprises and service providers are opening up their wallets for networks, and they'll keep it up at least until 2010, according to Infonetics Research. April 20, 5:15 p.m. PDT Telecom veteran questions Verizon VoIP patents Two patents owned by Verizon in its infringement lawsuit against Vonage are invalid, and if allowed to stand, could threaten all competing VoIP services, a telecommunications industry veteran said Tuesday. April 17, 2:07 p.m. PDT Vonage admits it has no workaround Vonage has acknowledged it has no workaround for technology that was found to infringe Verizon Communications patents and does not know if one is feasible. April 16, 12:40 p.m. PDT New worm wriggles around on Skype A worm targeting Skype's VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) application is harvesting e-mail addresses and directing users to a range of sites hosting other malicious software, security vendors said Monday. April 16, 5:21 a.m. PDT Vonage CEO resigns Vonage Holdings CEO Michael Snyder resigned, the company said Thursday, at the same time announcing moves to cut costs. April 12, 6:05 a.m. PDT Vonage, emergency responders support 911 bill Emergency dispatchers and VoIP provider Vonage on Tuesday urged U.S. senators to pass a bill intended to ensure that all VoIP customers can dial the emergency 911 service. April 10, 2:58 p.m. PDT Vonage gets temporary stay in Verizon suit Vonage has been given a temporary stay of a federal order that it stop signing up new customers because it's violating Verizon patents. April 6, 4:16 p.m. PDT Judge bars Vonage from signing up new customers A U.S. district court judge on Friday barred VoIP provider Vonage from signing up new customers after the company lost a patent infringement lawsuit to Verizon. April 6, 11:04 a.m. PDT UK lays down first rules for VOIP providers VOIP providers in the U.K. will have to provide clearer information about the services they offer under new rules announced Thursday by the U.K. telecommunications regulator. March 29, 7:09 a.m. PST Nortel, Microsoft lay ground for hosted services Microsoft and Nortel Networks are extending their unified communications partnership to carrier networks, laying the groundwork for hosted services. March 28, 6:23 a.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 Dell division will design Web 2.0 datacenters Dell on Tuesday announced it has launched a division to design customized datacenters for companies that rely on servers to run their businesses, such as Web 2.0 firms or Internet search engines. March 27, 1:01 p.m. PST Cisco adds 3G to branch router 3G (third-generation) wireless will grow up at the CTIA Wireless show in Orlando this week, finding its place in Cisco Systems business routers. March 27, 5:06 a.m. PST Update: Judge hits Vonage with injunction A federal judge on Friday issued a permanent injunction against VoIP service provider Vonage to stop it from using patented Verizon technology. March 23, 1:42 p.m. PST Microsoft to release VOIP server beta on Monday Microsoft will open up beta versions of its unified communications server and client software to the public for download on Monday, a senior company executive said Wednesday. March 21, 12:45 p.m. PST Thomson vies for place in digital living room Thomson has a quirky idea for a music-playing cordless telephone. It is showing a mock-up of the device on its stand at the CeBIT trade show, alongside other multimedia gadgets for the home, and hopes to have it on the market in the second half of this year. March 19, 5:59 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 Lending ear to open source VoIP Whereas commercial VoIP vendors typically supply their own phones, tying them to their IP PBXes for solid integration and providing phone setup, configuration, and maintenance as part of their packages, when it comes to deploying an open source VoIP solution such as Asterisk, it’s strictly a BYOP (bring your own phone) affair. 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 Adventures in Asterisk deployment It seems I eat so much of my own dog food these days that I don’t have time to enjoy a nice steak every now and again. My experience with Asterisk hasn’t been any different. 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 VoIP’s mad scientist Some stories are a labor of love. “Open Source VoIP Makes the Business Connection” is one of them. The love, in this case, originates with Senior Contributing Editor Paul Venezia. March 19, 3:00 a.m. PST Skype connects with the enterprise Skype says business users grab 30 percent of its downloads, but is the enterprise ready for wider use? March 16, 4:56 p.m. PST Vodafone takes hybrid approach to mobile VOIP Vodafone Group is demonstrating a service at the CeBIT trade show that allows mobile phone customers to call and exchange presence information with users of Internet phone services such as Skype. March 16, 6:03 a.m. PST Skype gains business reviews, expertise marketplace Skype has released a new version of its Internet telephony and instant messaging software that adds a feature to let users create business reviews and another one to sell expertise as the eBay subsidiary promotes interaction among its users. March 15, 2:38 p.m. PST Siemens teams with Nokia on Wi-Fi-GSM handover Siemens is working with Nokia to polish the handover of voice calls between corporate wireless LANs and public mobile phone networks, a Siemens executive said Wednesday. March 14, 12:57 p.m. PST Unraveling the Communications Server mystery Certain things exist without explanation: Ben Affleck's career; the micro PC; Tofurky. For many, LCS (Live Communications Server) 2005 fell into this category. Is it IM? Is it voice over the network? Does it use Messenger or something else? Redmond has recognized the Great Mystery of LCS and is looking to make things easier to understand with the platform's upcoming release, now to be called OCS (Office Communications Server) 2007. March 14, 3:00 a.m. PST Verizon ruling could be hard on Vonage Shares of Vonage plunged Friday in the wake of a patent-infringement ruling against the company that some analysts called a grim outcome for the VoIP service provider. March 9, 2:13 p.m. PST Jury finds Vonage infringed on Verizon patents A federal jury has found that Vonage infringed three Verizon patents and must pay $58 million in damages plus royalties to Verizon, Vonage confirmed Thursday. March 8, 1:57 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 Public beta due soon for new Microsoft VOIP server Microsoft will release a public beta of new VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) server software by the end of this month.The software smoothly integrates with legacy phone networks and its Office application suite, the company said. March 7, 4:10 a.m. PST Cebit wrestles with 'image crisis' There will be something for everyone at this year's Cebit trade show. Unfortunately, that's not what everyone wants. March 6, 10:09 a.m. PST Avaya Talks Up Voice as a Service The great thing about SOA is that when you add a service, you instantly increase the potential of any application that can consume that service. Today, Avaya threw a new set of VoIP services into the enterprise SOA mix in the form of its CEBP (Communications Enabled Business Processes) solution. March 5, 3:00 a.m. PST More IT war stories Off the Record, the real-world slice of life that graces the last page of InfoWorld, is one of our most popular columns. I know this from reader surveys and from all the e-mail I receive about it. As reader Roland Sickenberger put it recently, “It’s my favorite part of the magazine, kind of like a ‘Dilbert come to life’ thing.” March 5, 3:00 a.m. PST Deutsche Telekom to expand mobile phone business The T-Mobile brand could soon be coming to a market near you. As part of a strategy to revive profits, Deutsche Telekom intends to expand its T-Mobile cellular business in markets in which the German telecommunications group is already offering fixed-line services and possibly in entirely new markets, the company said Thursday. March 1, 8:15 a.m. PST Skype asks FCC to force open mobile networks Skype is looking to a 1968 ruling by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to open up the country's mobile phone industry for "unlocked" devices and third-party applications -- such as Skype. February 26, 5:02 a.m. PST DiVitas opens up its cell-to-Wi-Fi gateway A comparative operation: InfoWorld and Sports Illustrated: February 21, 3:00 a.m. PST > Networking |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
