AT&T announced the ability to call internationally at even better values.

Subscribers of AT&T CallVantage Softphone service will receive exclusive new international rates — which are up to 75 percent less than the already low AT&T CallVantage service plan rates — to approximately 40 countries. For example, AT&T CallVantage Softphone customers can call the United Kingdom, Greece, Beijing and Germany each for 2 cents a minute; Mexico City, 3 cents a minute; and New Delhi, 11 cents a minute.

"We know how important it is for families to keep in touch, whether relatives live down the street or across the world," said Anthony Tuggle, vice president of AT&T Voice Services. "As AT&T continues to expand its consumer offerings to better compete in and outside our traditional local service area, consumers are rewarded with compelling value."

Verizon Business ranks first in overall strategy for VoIP, according to a recently released Forrester Research study.

The study, "Forrester Wave: US Enterprise-Class VoIP Services, Q1 2007," found that "Verizon Business is best in class on overall voice over Internet protocol VoIP strategy, leading others on technology strategy, planned performance and customer service enhancements, and price."

The findings are particularly significant since businesses are increasingly seeking help transitioning from traditional telecommunications services to IP communications.

Last Thursday I was one of the lucky few to attend the first meeting of Nebraska People Making Money Online (NPMMO) in Omaha, NE. The event was put on by Jeremy Schoemaker aka (ShoeMoney) and we had guest speakers from Proxibid. Now if you haven't heard of Proxibid don't worry. They asked that during the meeting and I didn't see one hand go up and they're a company located here in Nebraska. I guess the ShoeMoney crew was out in full force for this first event and really wanted to meet him.

Overall it was an informative event in learning about Proxibid and what they do and how they do it. If you wish to find out more about Proxibid you can visit their website Proxibid.com. But basically they allow "auction companies the ability to broadcast their sales over the Internet in real-time to their customers who cannot attend the auction, and to reach new customers worldwide. This web-based application allows bidders to participate as if they were attending the auction in person."

Their most memorable auction sale dealt with two frozen mount lion or cougar cubs (sorry I can't remember). Which had been abandoned and died after their mother was killed so the Games and Parks office offered to sell them for science purposes. I guess it is true you can purchase just about anything on the internet these days.

The meeting was my first to such events. I had a great time talking with people and getting to know more about what other Nebraska's are doing online to make money. I look forward to attending more of these events and getting a chance to hear Jeremy's ideas on SEO/SEM/PPC/Arbitrage and other guest presentations.

You can read comments and more on ShoeMoney's post 'Proxybid Last Nights Guest Speaker At NPMMO'.

SIPphone announced the launch of its latest desktop VoIP product Gizmo Project 3.0, located at http://gizmoproject.com. Gizmo Project 3.0 introduces meta-voice capabilities, which enable free calling to Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live users. Gizmo Project 3.0 is the first VoIP software to link together multiple popular VoIP networks.

Meta-voice capabilities of Gizmo Project 3.0 allow users to call four of the most popular Voice and IM networks with one client for the first time. All calls to Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live, Google Talk, Jabber, and Gizmo Project users are free. To make a call, users simply type the username or ID of the person they want to call plus the network domain, for example, username@yahoo.com or username@hotmail.com. Gizmo Project 3.0 users can also call international Yahoo Messenger users for free in France, Spain, and many other countries, for example username@yahoo.fr or username@yahoo.es. All calls are connected directly through the Gizmo Project software and require no additional software.

Jaduka has opened its (API) to Web developers, thus enabling the next generation of web-to-voice applications.

Introduced at the O'Reilly Emerging Telephony Conference, the Jaduka API gives developers direct access to, and all the inherent benefits of, the world's highest-quality, ubiquitous public switched telephone network. Based on common Web standards, the API facilitates quick and easy development of virtually limitless voice-enabled business applications that can be used with any existing telephone -- wired, VoIP or wireless.

According to Jack Rynes, president of Jaduka, "By removing barriers and providing developers with tools and direct access for the first time to the global public telecommunications infrastructure, Jaduka is enabling those innovators to create the next generation of web-to-voice applications. Until today, this creativity has been constrained by bureaucratic telecom oligopolies or confined to limited IP-based private networks. This new generation of creative voice-enabled products and services will deliver enormous benefits for both businesses and consumers."

iSkoot has secured $7 million in Series B financing. iSkoot has become the leader in mobile VoIP solutions, recently working in close partnership with Skype to enable The 3 Group to become the first mobile operator to bring Skype-enabled mobile phones to consumers. iSkoot software was pre-loaded onto Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets used by The 3 Group to launch the industry's first mobile Skype service.

iSkoot Founder and CEO Jacob Guedalia said, "This investment from Charles River Ventures and our returning investors validates iSkoot's vision and execution. We look at Skype as a company that showed the world a new way of calling. We would like iSkoot to be known as the company that brought Internet calling to all mobile phones. We will continue to work with mobile operators and handset manufacturers to bring more mobile phone models to market preloaded with iSkoot software to enable ubiquitous mobile-to-PC calling. By embedding iSkoot in their handsets, mobile operators can satisfy user demand for Skype and expand average revenue per user, a clear win-win situation."

Digium's AsteriskNOW has been named a winner of a “Best of Show” Award at TMC;s INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East 2007.

AsteriskNOW is the software appliance and open source distribution of the popular Asterisk PBX featuring a Digium-designed graphical user interface. AsteriskNOW includes a new setup wizard that guides users through the installation process, regardless of any previous Linux experience. The AsteriskNOW distribution includes all the Linux components necessary to install and use Asterisk, simplifying the ease of use. Download options include ISO/CD Image, VM Player image, Xen universal guest image and LiveCD (burn and boot). Beginning March 5, AsteriskNOW will be available with a minibook reference guide.

Sipera Systems and INSI announced an agreement for the Sipera IPCS products for comprehensive, enterprise VoIP security to become part of INSI's solution portfolio. By partnering with Sipera, INSI is able to provide its customers with comprehensive VoIP security solutions for pervasive, real-time, unified communications.

"We believe secure, corporate communications is crucial to ongoing business operations," said Lloyd Rochon, CEO, INSI. "Sipera IPCS products extend beyond existing security products to combine VoIP VPN, firewall/SBC, intrusion prevention, anti-spam and compliance functionality in a single device. This comprehensive approach is ideal for our customers, and demonstrates that Sipera understands their security needs."

Buzz Technology gives users a preview of Buzz VPC. Buzz VPC offers Office Suite, Free Text messaging and free VoIP certainly has a serious edge on other recently released Application services, add to that the 3G interactivity on a global level between PC and Mobile and Buzz is set to dominate this new market. Google Apps and Windows Live are the only 2 competitors, but neither offer the depth of communications available on the Buzz VPC. A demonstration is available onsite and the system will go live in the next few days.

The VPC forms part of the software covered in the contract with the Royal Thai Military Lana Centre (total Members of the Royal Thai Military exceed 300,000) additional Buzz is in second round talks with Chang Mai University comprising three campuses, which together cover about 3,490 acres of land and over 26000 students.

Buzz has also has made arrangements with Amazon owned Alexa, and Blinkx in relation to additional search engine capabilities further improving our Search function.

See it all at http://www.12buzz.com

With the new agreement, Marco Island Cable will be able to provide voice services to its customers utilizing VoIP technology. Slated for testing starting in early March 2007, Marco Island Cable envisions launching its service to its cable subscribers in the Marco Island and Naples, FL communities. Marco Island Cable announced plans to offer a unique "Follow Me" calling plan, thanks to their agreement with YFonGlobal. The growing cable service provider will be able to allow seasonal residents to use one phone number that works both at their Marco Island winter home, as well their summer home, "up north".

"Our partnership with YFonGlobal will provide our customers a menu of quality services ranging from TV, telephone and cable internet access that many would suspect would only be available in large metropolitan areas," according to Marco Island Cable Company President Bill Gaston. "We are able to preserve the personalized, hands-on customer service that a small, home-town company like ours offers, with the added benefit of delivering leading edge services that our clients have come to expect," explained Gaston.

As the number of small and medium sized businesses around the world upgrading to Voice over IP (VoIP) is set to explode over the next few years, a unique opportunity exists for manufacturers and service providers to quickly deliver advanced products to this market. Texas Instruments Incorporated delivers the field-proven VoIP solutions to support this industry evolution, with its complete end-to-end VoIP portfolio incorporating TI's digital signal processing power to support the features and performance demanded by SMBs. The robust quality, enhanced security and quick delivery of products based on TI technology offer an exceptional investment for millions of SMBs that will transition to next- generation networks and service within the next five years.

According to a recent Yankee Group report, the SMB VoIP market is expected to reach more than $1 billion by 2009, growing by over 500 percent in a very short timeframe. With over 20 years of system level knowledge and expertise, TI is well-positioned to meet this increasing demand with its high quality, cost-effective and flexible VoIP solutions to power the devices best suited to meet SMB requirements. TI's VoIP products provide scalable platforms to support the features that SMBs demand, such as seamless growth, computer and telephony integration and, most importantly, cost savings with low-cost devices and support for existing equipment like analog phones and fax machines.

Global Crossing announced that its Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Outbound Service is available to enterprise and carrier customers in Mexico.

Using Global Crossing's VoIP Outbound Service, customers in Mexico can place international calls via an IP interface to Global Crossing. The IP-based voice traffic is then transported across Global Crossing's private IP backbone network. This global network ensures that VoIP packets receive the highest priority and delivers consistent, predictable call quality not possible with voice services based on public Internet transport; international voice calls are delivered with minimal latency, packet loss and jitter. In addition, VoIP Outbound Service supports several access methods including IP VPN, Dedicated Internet Access and public Internet access.

Allworx releases software version 6.5 that enhances its entire family of award-winning communications systems. This major new release brings the following capabilities to the Allworx 6x, 10x, and 24x platforms:

• Call Assistant 2.0 – This Windows PC-based tool, fully integrated with Allworx VoIP phones and designed to bring ease and efficiency to the operator/receptionist task, has been strongly enhanced with new views of the company directory, AA status, parked calls, and call queues. New transfer and dialing capabilities have also been added. This new feature is sold as an option.
• New Multi-Site Extensions - Setting up and using a convenient 3-digit dialing plan across Allworx servers in multiple sites (up to 99 sites) has never been easier. With release 6.5, Allworx servers automatically discover and route extension plans.
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The popular internet telephone provider Tpad is shunning the approach shown by its competitors by providing a unique incoming SIP number to every customer free of charge.

While most other VoIP companies charge yearly for this number, Tpad are offering this service for free and will provide as many as the customer wants at no extra charge.

Steven Johns, Marketing Manager for Tpad, said: "We believe that it is unfair to charge people just for a number to receive calls -- that's why we give all our customers a free number.

As more consumers turn their backs on traditional landline telephone service, analysts see Internet telephony going mainstream in the next two years. Projections indicate there will be 32 million Internet phone lines while traditional residential landlines will fall from about 114 million last year to about 88 million by 2009, according to Gartner Research.

Ohio-based Slane Telcom is capitalizing on this trend by acquiring Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) and deploying Motorola's Canopy wireless broadband technology to deliver high-speed Internet and Internet telephony services across the U.S. Slane's 2006 acquisition of a partial ownership stake in Plannet Group of Columbus, Ohio positioned the companies to offer Ohio's first completely wireless transport system offering Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Services. The company intends to replicate this model in all planned acquisitions.

According to John O'Connor, Slane Telcom partner and CEO of Celerity Networks, the flagship WISP of Slane's holdings, Motorola's award winning technology offers speed and reliability levels that are difficult to duplicate in traditional cable and phone delivery systems. "The big benefit is our ability to serve rural markets and underserved pockets in the urban landscape that until now have had no viable option for high-speed Internet and Digital Voice services."