snom has received one of the coveted Deloitte "Fast 500 EMEA" awards for the first time. Each year, Deloitte, the international auditing firm, ranks the 500 fastest-growing technology enterprises in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and recognizes them for their entrepreneurial excellence. snom was ranked first among German communication and networking enterprises. With a growth rate of 1312, 56% from 2002 to 2006, snom placed 125th in the overall ranking and 12th among German participants.

Buzz Technologies is pleased to announce a series of developments in the company’s mobile unit. One of them is a WAP based VoIP that allows mobile phone users to make low cost calls directly from their mobile phone. “This service is free to all members of Buzz’s Social Networking Sites, BuzZMe In and the Chinese Xirxi. Services such as VoIP, video, music, radio, news and instant messaging coupled with mobile devices such as a WiFi enabled iPod, and the ubiquity of broadband will result in 100 million consumer mobile VoIP users in 2011,” says Sutida Suwunnavid, Chairwoman of Buzz Technologies. “WiFi enabled mobile entertainment devices will make up 36% of all mobile VoIP devices sold in 2011.”

Buzz needs no special equipment or software, just a WAP enabled phone. Sutida also predicts that by 2011 Skype will have 25% of the world's VoIP users and $1.2 billion in voice service revenues. Buzz is aiming at Market penetration of 12.5% and $600m in revenue by 2011.

Domestic and business Skype users in London are still reeling from the announcement that they are being ditched on the 20th December, but now a free rescue package has been put together by a leading UK based VOIP technology company. Voipfone will be offering to help the anticipated 10,000 Skype users with London 0207 numbers who have been informed that as of 20th December 2007 they are having their numbers disconnected. Those who take up the offer will also discover that once they have switched over they will pay less than they currently do via Skype.

A free-phone rescue helpline has been set up by Voipfone to help Skype customers easily switch over their 0207 numbers; 0800 5200 949.

Packet8 MobileTalk international calling service is now compatible with nearly 450 different mobile phones including Blackberry, Nokia, Palm, Motorola, Samsung and other popular makes and models.

The Packet8 MobileTalk service seamlessly connects international calls from the mobile phone to the Packet8 digital VoIP network, enabling cell phone users to significantly reduce their international phone bills and maintain high digital voice quality while still enjoying the convenience and flexibility of mobile calling. Packet8 MobileTalk removes the barriers associated with existing carrier, calling card and call back services that often dissuade individuals from using their cell phones for overseas calling. These include obstacles such as costly per minute rates, poor call quality, cumbersome dialing procedures and unreliable service availability.

Bluesocket announces that its impressive and diverse customer base has surpassed 3,000 organizations and is among the largest in the enterprise mobility and wireless LAN market. This achievement underscores the value that Bluesocket’s secure wireless networking solutions deliver to customers across a variety of markets. In addition, the company’s increasing innovation around next-generation wireless technology has helped it to expand its customer base worldwide to more than 47 countries.

Packet8 has signed an agreement with SYNNEX Corporation calling for the distribution of Packet8 Virtual Office hosted iPBX phone services to small and medium sized businesses. SYNNEX will offer the telephony solution as part of its Technology-as-a-Service offering. The agreement enables SYNNEX Corporation's resellers to tap into the rapidly growing SMB hosted VoIP market with Packet8's leading business iPBX solution, now in use by over 9,000 U.S. companies.

TechFaith announced the launch of "Wing," a feature-rich WiFi-capable phone, and two WiFi smartphones with the internal code names of "Pluto" and "Vista 850." The WiFi VoiP and SIP enabled working sample of Wing is ready, and shipment is expected at the end of the first quarter of 2008 upon receipt of customers' firm orders. A WCDMA WiFi phone is under development.

Both WiFi smartphones, Pluto and Vista 850, are based on Windows 6.0. The phones feature a 2.0 megapixel camera, an MP3 and MPEG4 player, push mail and Bluetooth capabilities. In addition, Pluto has GPS function, and Vista 850 is also a slim music phone with a 3.5mm audio jack and a flash user interface.

Pingo adds new convenience features making it easier than ever for consumers and small business users to take advantage of VoIP for low-cost international calling. Pingo and Pingo Business are powerful telephony services that deliver the savings of VoIP, while allowing consumers to use any fixed-line or mobile phone without additional specialized equipment purchases or software downloads.

Pingo consumers have long been able to set up their accounts to automatically recharge when they reach a predetermined balance. Now, with the new feature, Pingo's interactive voice response system alerts users making Pingo calls when their account has a low balance, and with the simple push of the key a consumer's account can be replenished.

Telefonica Deutschland has selected Nominum's Foundation Caching Name Server to deliver consistent and high quality VoIP services for customers and sustain growth in the German communications market.

Telefonica Deutschland operates a high-performance network in Germany and is one of the largest VoIP carriers in the country. Its customers businesses depend on the performance and availability of the Telefonica network to survive. For Telefonica Deutschland to continue its successful growth in the German communications market, it needs to provide superior service levels and meet Service Level Agreement commitments to its wholesale customers while controlling operational costs.

8x8 launches Packet8 MobileTalk, an easy to use mobile calling service that offers a simple, affordable and high quality digital voice solution to overseas calling. Packet8 MobileTalk utilizes a downloadable software application that can currently reside on any Windows, Palm or Symbian based mobile phone to seamlessly connect international calls from the mobile phone to the Packet8 digital VoIP network. Routing these calls over the Packet8 network enables cell phone users to significantly reduce their international phone bills and maintain high international voice quality while still enjoying the convenience and flexibility of mobile calling.

JAJAH Direct launches as a next generation telephone service designed to bring free or low-rate International calls to any phone. Taking Internet access away from Internet telephony is a revolutionary step: dropping the need to be online allows everyone who owns a phone -- regardless of make or model -- to enjoy international calls for free, or at local rates. "With the introduction of JAJAH Direct we eliminate complicated VoIP solutions and archaic offline pre paid calling cards single-handedly," says JAJAH co-founder Roman Scharf. "Over-complicated and overpriced solutions are now old school! The 21st century of telecommunication knows no boundaries."

How JAJAH Direct works: Anyone interested in making International and long-distance calls dials a local JAJAH access number, then receives one local number for every friend, family member or business associate they want to call internationally. This number can be stored in a phone or address book like any other contact number. Then, calls are made to the contact's newly assigned local number for free or at reduced JAJAH Internet calling rates.

NextAlarm.com announces VoIPAlarm 2 the latest revision of its Internet-based alarm signal transmission service. Using patented Alarm Broadband Network technology and sold through NextAlarm's VoIPAlarm.com brand, VoIPAlarm 2 allows standard telephone-based Contact ID alarm systems to send signals via broadband Internet, even if no telephone line is present. The alarm signals are received at the VoIPAlarm central servers, then retransmitted to the central station of the dealer's choice.

JAJAH and Jangl announce a strategic partnership designed to expand and improve communications options worldwide. The partnership combines the respective strengths of the two companies and promises consumers the most innovative, relevant and reliable products, at the lowest possible costs, both now and for years to come. The agreement also delivers significant advantages to both companies as they expand voice and text messaging services for consumers, further bridge the web and the phone, and monetize a variety of services in the media channel.

The news comes as both companies work on significant new initiatives. As JAJAH increasingly becomes the industry's platform of choice worldwide, Jangl is developing services for several new partners, as well as Google's OpenSocial. Both companies expect to make more detailed statements soon.

Globe7 has upgraded to provide more user friendly applications integrated with Soft Phone, IM, Live TV, Live Radio, Videos, Games, News and many more opt-in widgets. Some of those add-on features include but are not limited to: Forex, Recipes, Sport, etc. With enhanced SMS and “MY Channel” features, Globe7 has become the user’s favorite communication and entertainment tool for internet communities across the world; with an average of 50 to 60 thousand new downloads every day.

To date, Globe7 has logged 42 Million downloads and has 5 million registered users worldwide. Says Venkat Meenavalli CMD, “the new web 2.0 application is now available for millions of our users with a plethora of new widgets those relay an unparalleled experience in the space of convenience, entertainment, and communication”.

The flexibility and openness of SIP have made it a key building block for VOIP services, but SIP also makes carrier and enterprise VOIP networks vulnerable to crippling attacks that could bring services down for days, according to the latest report published by Light Reading's VOIP Services Insider, a subscription research service from CMP's Light Reading.

SIP & VOIP: The Coming Security Crisis explores the vulnerabilities of VOIP networks to outside attacks and surveys available SIP security solutions, examining likely geographic expansion and providing an in-depth evaluation of the technology relative to its competition. It examines factors that vendors should address to promote growth, including technological and marketing issues. Additionally, it offers a detailed case study and provides a comparative analysis of some of the top companies in the SIP security arena