VOIP Solution and Service

The Danish company RTX Products A/S has introduced a cordless telephone handset that works with internet phone service provider Skype’s services and does not require a personal computer. The new DUAL phone helps people to save money on their phone bill and gives them more flexibility when using Skype.

The company’s DUAL phone 3088 can also be used as a normal phone using a landline. It works by connecting its base station to both a broadband internet connection for Skype calls and a traditional analog landline connection for making calls over the public switched telephone network(PSTN). The cordless aspect of the product is provided by DECT, a wireless technology well known for high reliability, low cost and no interference problems.

The phone has a simple Skype user interface and possesses almost all the Skype voice features. To use it on the internet, however, the internet connection must always be on. Users will have the option of making a Skype call or landline call and also Skype PC calls, SkypeOut, SkypeIn and Voicemail. The phone is priced 159 euros and has a colour display and an operating time of more than 10 hours of talk time as well as up to 140 hours at standby.

RTX Products A/S is a 100% owned subsidiary of RTX Telecom A/S, an internationally oriented group which develops and markets advanced high-tech solutions and products such as the DUALphone, Wireless Local Loop (WLL), Bluetoothâ„¢ headsets and healthcare products.

VoIP services are aiming for simplicity, cost benefits and mobility. Thomson, the U.S. branch of France’s Thomson SA which makes phones under the GE brand, is planning to launch next year cordless phones that include Voice-over-IP features.

The cordless handsets will embed the adapter technology needed to make phone calls over the Internet. The new devices will work with SunRocket’s VoIP service.

At the Broadband World Forum Europe, Thomson became the latest passenger on the convergence wagon by offering a new product that combines VoIP and IPTV. The company is also adding high definition sound to its home gateway products (BT is a gateway customer of Thomson’s). The new gateway will enhance services like Internet Radio and will cost up to €70 per box.

Vonage has been offering similar phones from VTech and Uniden for more than a year. This year also witnesses the launch of a Wi-Fi phone from Netgear by Skype. VoIP is really attracting the mainstream market with its added features.

The revenue from North American residential VoIP services is expected to reach $13.2 billion in 2012, up from last year’s $1.22 billion, according to Frost & Sullivan.

“The residential VoIP market is moving to mass-market consumers who are not interested in technology and novelty; they are looking at VoIP services based on convenience, control, and cost,” agreed Frost & Sullivan senior analyst Lynda Starr in a statement.

Skype Ltd. will begin testing an upgrade of its free communications software Skype 3.0 that can automatically detect phone numbers in Web pages and initiate calls. It also features community conference calls and text chats, as well as IT management features.

The new feature that recognizes telephone numbers in a Web page is called Click-to-Call. It allows users to place calls to those numbers using the fee-based SkypeOut service.

It has also introduced two new features: Skypecasts, for conference calls and public chats, in which people with a common interest can gather to communicate with each other.

Finally, the user interface has been modified to make it easier to find commands and perform actions. This launch shows Skype futuristic considerations. Skype keeps on venturing into new areas to find newer source of revenues. No wonder Skype is the leading VoIP provider today.

Niklas Zennström, Skype’s CEO and co-founder, aptly said at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, “
This software upgrade reflects Skype’s strategy of diversifying beyond Internet telephony toward other modes of online communications and of finding new revenue streams beyond phone charges.”

He also said, “Eventually, the price of telephone calls will continue falling until they are free, so Skype needs to generate revenue from other sources, such as e-commerce and advertising.”
Source: IDC News

Skype PBX (Private Branch Exchange) Gateway is now becoming the fundamental core of the Skype & Enterprise Application. By adopting this solution, enterprise-users can use an office PBX/phone to make or answer incoming or outgoing calls without needing a PC. Some more powerful applications added recently by Skype include:

1. Easy Web Call is the most popular application for the majority of Skypers to provide a Web Call to service your customers globally.

2. Virtual Office is very beneficial for small & Medium Enterprise. All the users will just call regular phone-number provided by the Skype, then all the calls will automatically forward to the Office PBX, i.e., to anyone in this company.

3. Travelers’ Soft-phone is a helpful to the company’s managers & sales that are traveling a lot. By using this solution, they are able to just simply bring their laptop, installed with Skype, and have a meeting anytime with the staff in the location where Internet services are provided.

4. Inter-VOIP is the key to manage all the telephony within your enterprise. By using this solution/product, it is easy to integrate your company’s VOIP like, Skype, MGCP, H.323, SIP, CISCO (Call Manager), etc. It not only can manage all the VOIP telephony but inter-VOIP as well, which is completely free.

Skype is definitely one of the biggest VoIP providers, but scrutinizing closely, there are certain areas that the Company needs to work on.

Skype uses a proprietary protocol, instead of an open standard like H.323, IAX, or SIP. This makes it impossible for other providers to interact with the Skype network. There are of course clear business reasons for this, since it helps protect the SkypeOut revenue stream from competition.

SkypeOut can be more expensive as its rates are based per minute. In some countries, many calls are charged at a specified fixed amount per call. For example in the UK, BT on its standard residential tariff charges 5½p for a 60 minute off-peak national call, whereas Skype charges 72p (€1.02).

Another criticism of Skype has been content filtering. Also, there is no Skype version for the Palm OS which is widely used in mobile devices.

A design limitation of Skype is that, if given access to an unrestricted network connection, Skype clients can become supernodes. These supernodes hold together the peer-peer network and provide data routing for those behind restrictive firewalls. Unfortunately, these supernodes can generate a significant amount of bandwidth. For this reason some network providers, such as universities, have banned Skype.

Analyzing the security and methodology of Skype, certain issues were noted:

* Heavy use of anti debugging techniques (typically found in malware)
* Heavy use of obfuscation of code
* Keeps chatting on the network, even when idle (even for non-supernodes)
* Lack of privacy (Skype has the keys to decrypt sessions)
* Heap overflow in Skype
* Skype makes it hard to enforce a (corporate) security policy
* There is no way to know if there is/will be a backdoor

At last VoIP is beginning to free itself from the shackles of broadband and PC and has come in the hands of cellphone users.

It is an obvious threat to Voice 2.0 , and of course to old-fashioned telephone and mobile companies. The companies like Skype, who have reportedly not moved much ahead in the mobile zone, also have to adapt to this new technology. These companies in the recent years have attracted millions of customers by allowing cheap or free phone calls over broadband instead of traditional phone lines.

However to use them users must buy special hardware to make phone calls over the internet, and the best deals are typically between two callers who use the same service. In other words, Skype isn’t much helpful in connecting you to your old grandmother in the old country unless she’s savvy enough to have a broadband connection and an account of her own.

Now is the era of smaller companies like Jajah and Rebtel. One company is boasting that customers can make VOIP calls over landlines or mobile phones without needing broadband. For $1 a week, another company connects international callers on mobile phones at no charge other than that for a local call.

In both cases, the companies rely on the fact that incoming calls are often free for cell-phone users. Both approaches have weak points, like a complicated pricing system (Jajah) and a clunky calling protocol (Rebtel). And there’s new competition from iSkoot, which offers software that helps cell phones access VOIP.

Following the example of eBay’s Skype, along with Jajah, MINO, RebTel, Switch-Mobile, and MobileSphere, three new services have just launched in the U.K. this week to enable the consumers mobile access to VoIP networks: Rok Viper, AQL for Nokia E series phones, and Mobiboo.

Rok Entertainment has decided to offer completely free calls—from mobile phone to mobile phone—using VoIP technology and the calls will be totally free if both parties are using Viper software. Calls to existing PSTN (public switched telephone network) landlines may be made available for a few pence per minute.

Initially, however, Viper will run on a few selected Nokia phones, including the popular N70. Instead of using a Wi-Fi connection to link the phone to a broadband Internet connection, Viper uses the far

more readily available Bluetooth technology.

Unlike other VoIP services aimed at mobile phone users, there’s no need for Viper customers to subscribe to any pre-paid account or multi-service bundle, nor to key in prefix access codes to use the service.The Viper software will be available on the Rok Viper web site starting Wednesday.

AQL plans to test its VoIP telephony service with the owners of Nokia E series phones by Monday.

Dr. Adam Beaumont, AQL’s managing director, says, “The free offer is simply intended to prove that Wi-Fi VoIP calling can deliver an excellent mobile service, with the ability to run alongside GSM for whenever callers are standing outside of a wireless hot spot.” Dr. Beaumont didn’t say how long the free trial will last. Unlike Viper, with AQL, users will be able to call anybody on any existing VoIP service, not just AQL’s own network.

Mobiboo said Monday it will be supplying Wi-Fi mobile phones that connect users to VoIP networks via a suitable access point or hot spot service. Mobiboo will be selling a suitable Wi-Fi router—again made by UTStarcom—for those who want to use the Wi-Fi phone around the home.

Most of the VoIP service providers attract the consumers by offering a host of new and exclusive features. However, it is the consumer who should decide which features are going to benefit him and which are going to be just a mere addition to the long list of VoIP features. After features the price factor is the most important one to decide which VoIP provider will be most beneficial for you.

Today Skype, Lingo and Vonage are three leading players in the VoIP arena who are providing the best VoIP services to their customers and offering a tough competition to each other. Skype has three basic plans, a PC-to-PC call, SkypeOut and SkypeIn. A PC-to-PC call can be made using the Skype messenger is the best option as it is free of cost and fulfills all promises made on the official Skype website. However, if you don’t wish to get wired and want to make calls on landlines and mobile phones from your PC and receive calls from those on your PC, then you can use SkypeOut and SkypeIn plans respectively. Skype’s cost plans are uncomplicated as compared to those of Lingo. However, if you make frequent international calls to Asia then you can take advantage of Lingo’s Asia package. Lingo’s international call rates to individual countries are lower than those of Vonage but higher than Skype. Skype has the lowest call rates but is limited in features. On the other hand, Vonage is consistent with its call quality and also delivers features, but it is quite heavier on your pocket. Although it cannot match its voice quality, Lingo can compete on features with Vonage. Hence, the features are many and the utility diverse, but you should first set your priorities right and decide what is the most advantageous to you.

One of the major players in the field of VoIP is Skype. Built by the inventors of Kazaa, Skype lets you make free VoIP calls via your broadband connection. The service uses peer-to-peer networking scheme but rather than sharing files, connected PCs help route one another’s calls. Skype also uses that routing technology to get around the need for (and cost of) central servers and directories, so call delivery can be free.

The software handles compression with several proprietary audio codecs, which, depending on the available bandwidth, deliver bit rates from 3 to 16 Kbps—enough for decent voice audio. The service does end-to-end encryption using 256-bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), which is nearly impossible to hack. Skype also supports text messaging, a useful feature for immediately sending notes to the other party. Skype differs from other major VoIP players insofar as it is designed more on the lines of an IM service that offers voice communication rather than a program designed to completely mimic traditional telephony. This means that it runs on a platform that allows for instant messaging, a convenient tool for those that want to send files across the internet while they are speaking. The service also comes with a host of other supported features like 3 and 4 way calling, call-waiting, voicemail, and customizable ringtones. Currently you can make point-to-point calls only, but conferencing will soon be introduced by Skype. However, Skype relies upon a very fast internet connection. The company is quite clear that dial-up service will be virtually impossible to communicate on.

Read More: Skype

With the VoIP phones gaining popularity day by day the number of players who are jostling for supremacy is also increasing constantly. Skype is one of these players who possess a large user base in the whole world.

Designed by the creative geniuses behind the controversial music sharing program Kazaa, Skype has experienced a huge boost in its consumer base recently. The reason for this quick rise in its popularity is that it allows its users to make completely free long distance calls through its peer-to-peer network. Skype differs from other major VoIP players insofar as it is designed more on the lines of an IM service that offers voice communication rather than a program designed to completely mimic traditional telephony. This means that it runs on a platform that allows for instant messaging, a convenient tool for those that want to send files across the internet while they are speaking. The service also comes with a host of other supported features like 3 and 4 way calling, call-waiting, voicemail, and customizable ringtones. However, Skype relies upon a very fast internet connection. The company is quite clear that dial-up service will be virtually impossible to communicate on.

Skype VoIP phone comes in three different forms, these are, SkypeOut, where you can use your computer to call ordinary phone numbers all over the world. The global SkypeOut rate is currently 1.7 Euro Cent (about 2 US cents or 1.1 pence) per minute to more than 20 countries; SkypeIn, which is a virtual phone number your friends can call. This is in beta testing at the time of writing this review, but the 12-month subscription is available for € 30 and 3 months for € 10; and Skype Voicemail, which lets you redirect calls to your voicemail, is available at € 5 for 3 months or € 15 for the year. However, the most widespread application of Skype is PC-to-PC calls.

Read More: Skype Review