Spring VON 2007 is just around the corner and there's sure to be lots of VoIP news coming out of the event. If you're lucky enough to be attending here's a panel event to check out on new VoIP services being unveiled.

TARGUSinfo co-founder and CEO Dr. George Moore is set to join a panel of senior executives at Spring VON 2007 who are inventing new ways for voice providers to generate revenue.

The panel, "Looking for New Revenue-Producing Services," includes executives from Yahoo!, Jangl CallWave and pulvermedia.

The session will debunk the fallacy that VoIP is just cheap voice technology. The truth is that VoIP is introducing many new applications that can generate significant revenue, even on the PSTN, including reverse 911, personalized dial tones and TARGUSinfo offerings like enhanced call detail, automated remarketing and "new mover" targeting.

• WHAT: "Looking for New Revenue Producing Services," a panel at Spring 2007 VON.
• WHEN: Thursday, March 22, 2007 1 p.m. to 2:15 p.m
• WHERE: San Jose Convention Center, 150 W. San Carlos St., San Jose, Calif., Room #A8.

Tpad has just made it easier to make mum's day on Mothering Sunday by slashing 50% off all call charges for the day.

The popular VoIP provider is cutting the cost of calls to any country in the world which means that families that live apart can stay in touch for less.

To take advantage of the cheap calls customers need to sign up for a free Tpad account, download the free softphone and get a minimum of $1 Tpad call credit. The discounted calls start from the moment the account first receives credit and there is no minimum call amounts to exceed before the savings begin.

Each user will receive 120 minutes at this discounted rate, plenty of talk-time even for those with plenty to catch up on. The 50% discount for Mother's Day is the latest innovative offer from Tpad as part of its campaign to cut the cost of VoIP calling.

Tpad also offers every customer a free VoIP number and has recently launched 13 new Break In numbers to allow people to call Tpad users through a normal phone while still enjoying Tpad's low call charges.

Vonage and Motorola announce the release of a new wireless router that will make it easy for customers to use fax, telephone and Internet services at the same time. Motorola, known for its innovation and leadership in wireless and broadband communications, developed the VT2542 to meet the sophisticated needs of Vonage's customers. The VT2542 enables Voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephony and includes a 4-port wired and 802.11 b/g wireless access point for home networking connectivity. This new device is available at http://www.vonage.com for $59.99 after a $40 instant rebate ($99.00-$40.00=$59.99) (a $9.95 shipping and handling fee and a $29.99 activation fee is charged).

Actiontec Electronics announces that three of its international corporate customers, each with significant international calling needs, have cut their overseas phone costs by an average of 50% or more through the use of VoSKY Exchange, Actiontec's PBX-to-Skype gateway product. In addition to their dramatic telecom savings, the companies have increased productivity and convenience for their employees by allowing them to access Skype lines from any standard desktop phone connected to the PBX.

VoSKY Exchange enables companies of all sizes to centralize and control Skype calling by bridging their Private Branch Exchange equipment directly to Skype, the world's largest VoIP supplier with over 130 million users. The VoSKY Exchange connects directly the company's PBX equipment, adding multiple Skype lines.

Haha, I just saw this video over at Andy Abramson's VoIP Watch blog which is always a great read for VoIP news. Thanks Andy.

Pulvermedia will be hosting a pre-Spring VON Webinar entitled, "Verizon vs. Vonage: Where does VoIP stand?" on Thursday, March 15th, at 1:00 PM EDT. This special Webinar will provide a preview to one of the many discussions that will take place next week at Spring VON in San Jose.

Thursday's Webinar will specifically discuss the recent court decision about VoIP, providing a backdrop for the pending injunction hearing. It will discuss who stands to benefit as a result of this recent decision, and it will examine what happens next for the VoIP industry as a whole. The discussion is expected to last approximately 40 minutes, covering the following topics:

• What is the scope of the patents at issue and what was decided?
• Is this a matter of competitive advantage, or does it raise anticompetitive concerns?
• What is the impact (if any) on other VoIP providers?
• What are the implications for regulators and legislatures, and what reaction should be anticipated from the VON community?

Panasonic and deltathree announce that deltathree's newly formed consumer brand, joip, will be the exclusive VoIP service provider for Panasonic's GLOBARANGE series of hybrid 2-line cordless phones. Through joip's VoIP offering and Panasonic's consumer electronics expertise, the two companies aim to create a global community by providing free calling between joip-enabled GLOBARANGE phones in all regions of the world.*

GLOBARANGE phones are hybrid 2-line 5.8GHz and DECT cordless phones, supporting both landline and joip-powered VoIP services. The phones allow calls to be made and received via both the VoIP line and a regular landline connection from any of its expandable cordless handsets. This innovative phone provides a solution for consumers who want to enjoy the best of both worlds: the traditional landline phone and VoIP. Consumers can maximize the benefits of VoIP service, including free and low-cost calls as well as advanced features, without the hassle of being tied to a computer or the need for an external adaptor. At the same time, they maintain their current landline service and traditional phone user experience.

fring officially launched its free, mVoIP (mobile VoIP) service for S60 devices. Developed by Nokia, S60 is the world’s leading smartphone software, as Nokia alone has shipped cumulatively over 84 million S60 based devices by the end of 2006.

fring is a light downloadable mobile phone application enabling anyone with a compatible handset to make free calls and text messages or “chat” to other fring users in addition to Skype, Google Talk and MSN contacts. Used in more than 140 countries only three months after launch, fring is now available for S60 devices via download from www.fring.com. S60 offers mobile users an easy-to-use and intuitive user interface, a good inter-working application suite, and a rich application-development environment.

Pulvermedia announces the 2007 "Pulver 100" -- which is the first and foremost listing of privately-held growth companies that represent the future of IP Communications. Each company named to the Pulver 100 will be honored at the upcoming Spring 2007 VON Conference and Expo, which is scheduled for March 19-22, at the San Jose Convention & Expo Center.

"Each year, the Pulver 100 list continues to grow in stature, and this year's winners do not disappoint, as each is a true innovator and contributor to the IP communications ecosystem," said Jeff Pulver, chairman and founder of Pulvermedia.

You can view the "Pulver 100" awards list at http://pulverblog.pulver.com/archives/006604.html and congratulations to the winners.

Oracle released the results of a global Communications industry survey, conducted on its behalf, by the Economist Intelligence Unit, revealing that over 80 percent of industry executives believe that voice calls will no longer make-up the primary revenue source for communications carriers within six years. Furthermore, over half of the senior executives questioned believe this will happen within the next four years, emphasizing the need for operators to immediately identify and develop new revenue streams to avert steep declines in their business.

Survey results show that world-wide, executives believe that new on-line Voice over IP (VoIP) services, such as Skype, are the greatest threat to the fixed line revenues with 68 percent of respondents identifying VoIP operators as the primary cause of declining revenues.

Additional results include:

• 72 percent of executives believe that introducing new services is the most effective strategy to counter falling voice revenue, much more so than pricing changes or marketing initiatives.
• 65 percent of respondents comment on bundled triple-play offerings as important or critical, emphasizing the importance of the overall service packaging within the communications industry.
• 51 percent of executives say mergers and acquisitions with mobile operators are strategies they are most likely to pursue in the next two years.

Since today's VoIP news is rather slow, but no slower than any other Friday. Why not provide a weekly roundup of what VoIP bloggers have been writing. Just incase you missed it.

Yesterday I did a quick post on Herb Greenberg's take on "The MagicJack" which included a nice video. It seems other VoIP bloggers were picking up on the same story and provided their take on the topic. Tom Keating writes, magicJack - New VoIP Player launches and Paul Kapustka of GigaOM in MagicJack, Simpler VoIP than Skype?

Skype made news this week as it tops 500 million downloads which reminded me of this post Digg Hits 750,000 Sock Puppets (Great image included). In other Skype news Andy Abramson has hinted at Is Skype Getting Sexy? and Gautam of voip-weblog.com on Skype Prime Beta - get paid for the calls.

Last but not least this weeks big news came yesterday when the "Vonage" hit the fan. Great titles referenced everything, but Anita Ward's "Ring my Bell" song.

• Verizon 1, Vonage 0. End of the Seventh Inning.
• Vonage Gets It's Bell Rung by Verizon
• and Vonage loses in court, spins PR, promises no break in service

It appears that the RIAA is back at it again. This time the music industry is asking 50 Ohio University students to pay $3,000 each to avoid lawsuits for pirating music off the internet. The university was asked to send letters to the offenders on Monday, who's Internet addresses appear to be sharing copyrighted music. This is just part of an ongoing piracy crackdown that's sued nearly 18,000 computer users nationwide since 2003. Including 1,062 uers at 130 universities.

The RIAA said last month that it intended to sue more students in the next three months than it has in the previous three years. I made light of this in my article entitled "RIAA Ranks University of Nebraska #3 is it Preseason Already?" The students are facing punishments that include email warnings, semester-long suspensions and having to watch an eight-minute anti-piracy DVD produced by the RIAA. However, it seems I failed to mention the $3,000 fine they are attempting to take from the pockets of college students.

With this in mind I just think back two years ago to when I was a college student. Living off Ramen, vending machines, and the occasional friends food supply. I didn't have an extra $3,000 to shell out for my activities.

Patrick McGee, a local attorney the university arranged to meet with students, said "$3,000 is the standard offer though cases have settled for as much as $5,000". He has represented four Ohio University students in file-sharing lawsuits and says most college students cannot afford paying the $3,000 fine. Perhaps the RIAA should lighten up and find better ways of going after the already broke college student.

Herb Greenberg columnist of Market Watch talks about "The Magic Jack" and how it might be a Skype and/or Vonage killer. Anyways here's the video so check it out and leave me some feedback.

A federal jury dealt a blow to Internet phone company Vonage, ruling that it infringed on patents held by Verizon. Vonage was ordered to pay $58 million in damages, plus royalties on future sales.

However, Vonage is delighted that the jury rejected Verizon's meritless claim that we infringed their two billing patents. Of the seven patents Verizon originally sued on, they prevailed on only three and we expect that verdict to be reversed on appeal. The jury's damage award represents a 70% reduction from Verizon's $197MM claim. The jury also unanimously rejected Verizon's claim that Vonage willfully infringed its patents.

In addition, we don't believe there is any basis to support Verizon's request for an injunction and we will have the opportunity to present our position to the trial court shortly. If the trial court does impose an injunction, we will seek an immediate stay from the Federal Court of Appeals. Vonage's customers should see no change to any aspect of their phone service.

It appears the Vonage Fan Van isn't running on four flat tires and will continue to terrorize people by throwing Vonage boxes at peoples heads.

A quick follow up to my post on, "VoIP Action Hits the Auction Block". After curiosity got the best of me I decided to email VoIPAction.com founder Chris Lewis to have some questions answered.

My first question was "What's your reason for selling VoIPAction.com?"

Chris replied, "Our reason for selling is that our core business is a news technology platform (in fact it powers the www.voipaction.com news channels)."

"We've been using www.voipaction.com to test delivery of that service over the past 12 months, and to test various approaches including how to drive free organic search engine traffic through automated news. That testing phase is now complete and we are moving forward to commercialize that business. VoIPAction just has much greater value to a VoIP industry business than it does to us now. The real value of the site is its' highly targeted traffic, 75% of which is brand new people every month."

He then provided some respectable monthly and annual search and visitor stats the site has driven through Google.

My second question was in regards to what an established VoIP portal website goes for these days?

I won't disclose the asking price, but Chris wasn't shy about it.

Chris added, "The site is completely automated and has zero monthly maintenance costs other than hosting. Price includes a perpetual (free) license for our news platform which updates www.voipaction.com continuously, 24/7, with the latest VoIP news."

It should be noted VoIPAction has a Google page rank of 6/10, Alexa rank 639,275 and a Technorati rank of 208,948. So if you are a serious buyer interested in the purchase of www.voipaction.com you can contact them via feedback@voipaction.com.

I also want to say thanks to Chris for answering my questions in a timely manor and the kind words he had about VoIP Monitor. We wish you the best of luck in the future.