CMP Technology announced the highlights of VoiceCon Spring 2007, which will feature an expanded program featuring systems, software and applications payoffs, which offer attendees more insight and analysis than ever before on migrating and deploying IP Telephony, Converged Networks and Unified Communications. The VoiceCon Spring program also has increased the number of sessions by more than 40 percent, and will present more vendors on the VoiceCon show floor than ever. VoiceCon Spring 2007 will be held March 5-8 at the Gaylord Palms Hotel in Orlando. Registration for the event is now open at www.voicecon.com/spring/registration.

Every now and then I like to take a little break from the daily VoIP news and just write about whatever's currently on my mind or bugging me. Lately, the increase in spam email has really become an annoyance. It makes my job harder in replying to your email questions, comments and press releases. It seems the increased spam is affecting everyone these days reports GigaOM in Spam is sucking life out of Email.

Which is why I'm applauding MySpace for going after Scott Richter, one of the most successful (spammers) high volume email deployers ever, was named in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles court last Friday.

Richter and his associates “arranged for millions of spam ‘bulletins”‘ to be sent from MySpace users’ accounts without their knowledge by gaining access to them illegally, according to the lawsuit.

You can read more on this over at shoemoney.com a website I enjoy reading daily and he included this funny video clip from The Daily Show.

Yesterday in my "Todays VoIP Blog News Your Moment of Zen", I reported that Alec Saunders is at ITEXPO. Turns out this is not true in a report on his blog saunderslog.com. Sorry for any added confusion to my readers and Alec Saunders.

Vapps announces an alliance with Windows Live Messenger to offer free conference calling services to the 255 million users of Windows Live Messenger through a convenient activity.

Windows Live Messenger, the next version of MSN Messenger, is the world's largest easy-to-use consumer instant messaging service that allows people to connect with others in real time, expressing themselves in a rich, convenient and fun way. Users of the conference calling plug-in will be supplied with a conference bridge number as well as participant codes for use by up to 500 participants simultaneously. A variety of services will be available through the conferencing activity including, standard call management (volume control, muting, participant announcing, conference locking and recording) along with sophisticated moderator features for Web-based on-demand call control.

Pulvermedia announces that the 11th annual Spring VON Conference & Expo, taking place March 19-22 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center, is tracking to be the biggest Spring VON in the company's history. Spring VON has increased in size each year, and the upcoming March event is tracking to be the largest Spring VON ever, bolstered by the presence of more than 300 vendors, 250 speakers, and the ever-expanding Video on the Net event -- which runs concurrently with VON, in the adjoining Marriott hotel in San Jose.

VON attendees are recognized to be the leaders in the IP communications industry. Independent survey data from market research and consulting firm Savatar, suggests that more than 84% of the VON attendee base has purchasing authority and plans to spend more than $30 billion on IP communications products and services within the next year.

The Bralorne Mining Company has announced that, Beijing QTC will continuously develop the potential VoIP market in China.

Mr. Zhang Feng Ming, President of BLNM, said that, "PC to PC VoIP phones users in mainland China reached nearly 19 million in 2004. With VoIP platforms being extremely flexible, this system combines the benefits of IP networking with the rich features and high availability of circuit-switched systems. The whole market volume will be continuously enlarged and users are expected to reach 28 million in China by 2008, according to forecasts of iResearch, a professional market research company."

Raketu announces the immediate availability of its Chinese language version. Currently, all pre-paid customers of Raketu’s "RakOut" dial-out voice over IP (VoIP) service enjoy free calling to over 40 countries. This same service offer will now be available for Chinese speaking consumers, wherever they live in the world, as all calls to locations in these countries are free regardless of where they originate.

“In response to the tremendous interest in Raketu from China, Raketu has released its Chinese language version,” said Greg Parker, President of Raketu. “With our Chinese language release of Raketu, we are continuing to deliver on our promise of localization, enabling our users to use Raketu in their native language.”

Actiontec Electronics announces a new generation of VoSKY Exchange, a family of PBX-to-Skype gateways. With these products, businesses can use standard desktop phones to make and receive free and low-cost long-distance and international calls over Skype, the world’s fastest-growing Internet communication offering. The new 9140/9180 series adds remote access to Exchange-based Skype lines for users who are out of the office, other convenience features, and a new PBX connectivity strategy that reduces costs.

VoSKY Exchange is a rack-mountable, PBX voice gateway that adds up to eight outgoing Skype lines to the office PBX without changes to existing PBX or phone equipment. Multiple Exchange boxes can be set up in company offices in different locations worldwide to enable free calls between colleagues. Calls to other Skype users are free, while SkypeOut calls to landline or mobile phones are charged at very low rates. The system eliminates the need to use a PC and headset to make Skype calls, has a low one-time cost, and can pay for itself in a few months. Skype itself has no signup or monthly access fees.

According to a recent report by Dell’Oro Group total PBX revenues are projected to exceed $7.5 billion annually in 2011. Driven by expanding demand, Voice over IP (VoIP) continues to gain in popularity for all businesses, regardless of size.

“Large enterprises have led the way in the deployment of IP telephony, and now we are seeing small and mid-sized business also realizing the benefits of VoIP,” said Alan Weckel, Analyst of IP Telephony Enterprise Research at Dell’Oro Group. “Large enterprises are now testing the waters with Unified Communications solutions that promise to provide users with a cohesive communications experience in which voice, instant messaging, video, and email are integrated together,” Weckel added.

Blue Networks announced general availability of its next-generation customer provisioning and control panel and began free VOIP trials.

"We're very excited about our latest addition to the stable of technologies here at Blue," said Stephen Misel, Director of Technology of Blue Networks, Inc. "Our next-generation customer control panel was designed from the ground-up to be powerful and easy to use," Misel added. Some of the features in the web-based system include balance notifications, phone number provisioning, SIP/IAX trunks, CDR and Channel support.

Free Trial
"We invite anyone with a need for SIP origination and termination services to sign up for our free VOIP trial and evaluate our technologies," said Jed Stafford, President of Blue Networks, Inc. Trial accounts are created immediately, and with no strings attached. "Potential customers are given ten minutes of US termination and access to Blue's customer tools, including the next-generation provisioning and control panel, to evaluate the services," Stafford said.

For information: http://www.sellvoip.net

CNet Technology and VIVOphone are teaming together to offer customers a series of VOIP solutions. This association marks CNet’s entry into the VOIP market and capitalizes on its established distribution and support network in the U.S. and Latin America.

“We believe that by choosing VIVOphone as our VOIP partner and by working as a team, we can consolidate our individual strengths and spur further growth for each company,” said Bryan Chan, EVP of CNet Technology. “In addition, VIVOphone has strong presence in Latin America and CNet is eager to leverage VIVOphone’s visibility in order to serve the needs of the market.”

VoIP Weblog reports VoIP Client from Gizmo Project for Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. Looks pretty cool just click on the image for a larger picture.

Andy Abramson points out V-Access Is Real Yawner due to Vonage's lack of innovation. When someone yawns why is it so addicting that you find yourself yawning with them?

Skype for Business and Professionals link blurp fest. Keep that Skype news coming Jan.

Tom Keating has Arrived at ITEXPO with 77 °F and mostly cloudy sky's, but will that put a damper on Internet Telephony Conference & Expo East 2007? No way! Right now I'm wishing I was at the event. VoIPMonitor is still proud to be a media sponsor of the event. So keep the unlucky rest of us updated Tom.

Alec Saunders is also at ITEXPO and I'm not. He interviews Digium's VP Bill Miller and calls out todays Digium full-court press (release). Correction: Alec Saunders is not at ITEXPO

MyVoIPnews reports on Naughty Engin caught. I'd say doing 60mph in a 45mph zone.

The average number of calling features is increasing for VoIP phone service plans while monthly prices remain steady, according to VoipReview.org, the first and most complete comparison shopping and information source for broadband phone service. While the average number of features per calling plan increased from 23 in April to nearly 27 in November, the average price of an unlimited long distance VoIP home plan remained consistent at approximately $25 per month, according to online search data collected from April 1 through November 30, 2006.

"The VoIP industry has steadily improved product offerings over the past year, which means VoIP buyers continue to get more for their money," said Eric Laughlin, chief executive officer of VoipReview.org. "As VoIP providers compete for their share of the marketplace, you'll see more and more calling features offered standard, with prices staying generally the same. In addition to the cost savings over traditional analog phone lines, free calling features are another key reason why more people are switching to VoIP."

VoIP Supply announces the official launch of their VoIP Hardware affiliate program. The VoIP Supply affiliate program, which has been in a private beta stage since the beginning of November, is now open to any affiliate looking to capitalize on the growing VoIP hardware marketplace.

"VoIP Supply believes strongly that affiliate partners will be a key to the continued growth of our online sales," said Garrett Smith, Director of Business Development at VoIP Supply. "We have crafted the program, based on feedback from our beta affiliates, that offers generous commissions, dedicated account management, and promotions designed specifically for the affiliate channel. We are excited about the potential of the program and look forward to working closely with our current and future affiliate partners."

XO Communications announced that the amount of voice traffic carried across its nationwide IP network exceeded 15 billion minutes in 2006. During the course of 2006, voice traffic carried across its nationwide IP grew by 80 percent, from 822 million minutes in January 2006 to approximately 1.5 billion minutes in December 2006.

"XO is a leader in VoIP solutions for businesses and communications service providers, providing the essential building blocks and end-to-end solutions that enable customers to deliver services across our nationwide, next generation IP network," said Carl Grivner, CEO of XO Communications. "Through the investments we have made and continue to make in our network, XO is well-positioned to support the growing demand for IP voice services."