VocalTec and Technology Bureau announce their cooperation in providing complete VoIP solutions to the service provider market as well as Telecommunications Community Cooperatives in Argentina.

A TCC is an autonomous democratically managed association of individuals, who jointly respond to common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations. TCCs operate in remote or low-populated areas to provide telephone and Internet services to their target populations. Most TCCs also offer free community services, such as courses on information and communication technologies, and free Internet access to public schools, libraries, and public facilities.

Jaxtr announces that its membership has grown 10-fold since July from 500,000 to 5 million. This makes jaxtr the fastest growing Internet communications service in history - ahead of Skype, Hotmail and ICQ. Jaxtr users can make and receive phone calls in 220 countries, and they enjoy not just bypassing international calling fees, but also having greater control over incoming calls while using their regular landline or mobile phone. Jaxtr's record word-of-mouth growth is due to the fact that jaxtr is the first service to offer benefits not just to the caller or the callee, but to both parties. Jaxtr has never done any advertising or any kind of distribution deals to promote its service.

Packet8 is once again continuing its holiday season tradition of providing pediatric patients in children's hospitals throughout the U.S. with opportunities to have live videophone visits with Santa Claus at the North Pole.

Now in its 4th year, the "Videophone Visits with Santa" program enables children who are hospital bound to see and chat with Santa over the Packet8 Tango videophone service at his "North Pole" workshop at 8x8's Santa Clara, California headquarters. The visits take place from either the child's hospital room or a centralized patient lounge area and are followed by the special delivery of requested toys and gifts.

Children's hospitals participating in the program this year include:

• Cincinnati Children's Hospital - Cincinnati, OH
• Miami Children's Hospital - Miami, FL
• Johns Hopkins Children's Medical Center - Baltimore, MD
• Barbara Bush Children's Hospital - Portland, ME
• Schneider's Children's Hospital - Long Island, NY
• Shriner's Hospital for Children - Tampa, FL
• Vanderbilt Children's Hospital - Nashville, TN

Polycom announces a new model in its SoundPoint IP desktop phone line, the SoundPoint IP 560. Recognizing that more enterprises are deploying Gigabit Ethernet networking infrastructures to deliver new productivity enhancing applications that require more bandwidth, the new SoundPoint IP 560 enables full GigE data transmission between the network and an end-user's computer, enabling a single IP connection to support the desktop. In combination with Polycom HD Voice technology, the SoundPoint IP 560 is the ideal solution for enterprises that demand the best call experience and are either deploying or considering deploying advanced applications requiring a high-bandwidth network infrastructure.

In addition to its GigE support, the SoundPoint IP 560 delivers a clear and unrivaled lifelike audio experience with Polycom's high definition voice technology -- Polycom HD Voice. A key component of HD Voice is the use of a standard wideband voice codec (ITU standard G.722), which enables high definition voice transmission. As adoption of wideband voice accelerates, enterprises benefit most by investing in IP endpoint that support G.722 wideband calls. Polycom HD Voice also includes its patented Acoustic Clarity Technology which provides market leading noise reduction, echo cancellation and full duplex speakerphone capability.

Noise Free has created a new corporate pricing plan for its newly released NoiseFree VoIP call quality management software. The new NoiseFree VoIP Enterprise plan gives large volume users a cost effective means to provide mobile personnel with call quality assurance solutions regardless of employee location and is offered in response to ever-growing requests from corporate customers.

NoiseFree VoIP Enterprise is and easy-to-implement way to improve the quality of service for VoIP personal calls and VoIP conference calls. NoiseFree VoIP was launched as a beta version in October and the GA version was released in November and is available for individual download and purchase at the Noise Free website. Already more than three thousand users have downloaded the software application and Enterprise IT management is beginning to recognize the benefit of providing noise cancellation and the ability to boost voice signals for all VoIP based call services.

Raketu releases its VoIP calling web application for Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. The new web-based application allows Apple iPhone and iPod Touch users to make international calls totally free or at Raketu’s ultra-low cost VoIP calling rates. Additionally, users can send SMS Text Messages globally, and send email all from within the Raketu iPhone Application.

Raketu’s iPhone Application Features

Raketu’s new iPhone Application is entirely web-based and does not require consumers to download any software. Apple iPhone and iPod Touch users can sign up and access the service via their iPhone or iPod Touch web browser at iphone.raketu.com

Phone.com commences operations with the introduction of IP-based phone services targeting entrepreneurs and households. Designed as a one-stop portal for communications services, Phone.com features new Virtual Office and Home Phone offerings with plans starting at $9.88 per month. The company is also in the developmental stages of several additional communications technologies and anticipates adding new products in the first half of 2008.

Phone.com products provide the ability to customize a variety of phone services for professional or personal use, and to modify their operations as needed via the user-friendly web interface or customer service agents.

TeleCents Communications has deployed Secure Computing Sidewinder to provide security for their traditional telecom as well as VoIP services. TeleCents required one device to protect their entire enterprise gateway, and Sidewinder's powerful, scaleable solution included all the components necessary for the secure exchange of both traditional data and VoIP calls across open networks.

TeleCents Communications recently chose to implement the SIP application to strengthen their VoIP offering. But with that implementation, potential security vulnerabilities increased dramatically, making an increased level of gateway security essential. VoIP risks are perhaps the best-kept secret on the Internet. Blinded by the promise of reduced costs and flashy features, VoIP deployments forge ahead despite millions in losses due to VoIP fraud and the growing trend of hackers using VoIP as a back door into enterprise networks. It is for these reasons that VoIP security is essential.

TMC has once again teamed up with Fonality to host several trixbox Open Communication Certification Courses at its upcoming INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO at the Miami Beach Convention Center on January 23-25, 2008. Registration is now open at www.itexpo.com.

Attendees can sign up for FtOCC Admin, which prepares people to sell and install trixbox, or FtOCC Technician which focuses on trixbox support and troubleshooting. Both courses are part of the Fonality trixbox Open Communication Certification series.

Verizon Business is expanding its already extensive portfolio of managed network services that simplify the transition to Internet protocol communications.

Verizon Business now offers Managed IP PBX on the Nortel IP telephony platform, combining the reliability, flexibility and simplicity of Nortel's portfolio with Verizon Business' end-to-end network management, PBX expertise and advanced monitoring systems. This new managed IP PBX offering provides large-business and government customers another strong option for smoothly moving to an advanced and integrated IP-based communications system by simply adding a new server and updated software. The offering will be available to U.S.-based large-business and government customers next month.

JAJAH released version 2.0 of its calling application for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch. In addition to saving on international calls, users will have an iPhone style dial pad, iPhone address book and full calling functionally with the device.

Hand-in-hand with JAJAH's developer community, the enhanced application enables users to make ultra-low cost international calls directly from the iPhone and iPod touch. The application combines the best of both worlds: The reliability and quality of a standard landline or cell phone while profiting from the cost savings of Internet telephony. Apple users have modified the application on top of the JAJAH platform to make it look exactly like any other phone call on an iPhone device! There is no need to install an application so users globally can use the service without any jailbreaks. This new JAJAH Web app is available http://iphone.jajah.com

Demand for VoIP in Canada is at all time high according to the recent report conducted by VoIPGizmos.ca and other VoIP providers in Canada. It estimates that 1 out of every 12 Canadian is currently enjoying the benefits of VoIP. This increasing trend may not prove surprising considering the benefits of this feature-rich technology.

Various providers of VoIP gadgets and solutions in Canada have witnessed this overwhelming increase in demand for VoIP services in the country. "The demand for VoIP has not only been overwhelming for service providers, but for gadget providers as well. We are already way past our sales target for the year, and the trend is very promising. The number of companies, home-based business and ordinary individuals coming to us for their VoIP needs have grown substantially," says VoIPGizmos.ca founder Alex Kovalenko.

US National Telecom has experienced rapid growth in 2007. And there is no sign that this rapid growth will slow down anytime soon. Various market studies indicate that only 25% of small business customers have converted to using telephone-over-Internet services, which indicates that the largest boom in VoIP telephone services is still to come.

A recent study by Infonetics Research, found that businesses of all sizes are evaluating or planning to deploy VoIP solutions. Yet only 36 percent of large companies, 23 percent of midsize companies and 14 percent of small companies are currently using VoIP technology, according to the companies surveyed in the Infonetics study.

ICT announces the addition of Apple's iPhone to the "Cannes Project" integrated voice and data platform. ICT's selection of the iPhone was based upon the popularity of the product and the user profile. This platform will enable the 1 million iPhones reported sold as of September 26, 2007 to send voice and data between any broadband capable mobile devices, the over 246 million Skpe users and all VoIP carriers without using cellular plan minutes and not requiring a cellular carrier wherever WiFi/WiMAX is present. The "Cannes Project" platform is intended to be a browser-less platform but in the case of the Apple iPhone, ICT will adhere to Apple's requirement to develop applications through the iPhone Safari browser.

Intelligent communications solutions from Avaya attained SIPconnect Compliant certification from the SIP Forum, a leading independent IP communications industry association comprised of individuals and companies who contribute to the development of global IP communications based on the SIP standard.

SIPconnect certification provides enterprise customers with validation that Avaya Communication Manager, the company's software platform for IP communications, and Avaya SIP Enablement Services, which enable companies to take advantage of SIP-based connectivity to public networks of service providers, achieved SIPconnect compliance for SIP trunking.