Pulvermedia announced the winners of the inaugural VON Magazine Innovator Awards. Building on the legacy of the Pulver 100, the VON Innovator Awards have evolved to recognize start-ups and publicly-traded companies that represent the future of Internet Communications. Pulvermedia also announced that it is hosting a ceremonial presentation for the winners of the VON Innovator Awards at Spring VON.x on Tuesday, March 18 in San Jose. Outlined here are the winning 65 companies. An additional "Judge's Top-10 Picks" list will be announced live in the VON Theatre on the expo floor.

LightEdge Solutions announce the availability of high definition phones for its Hosted Voice-over-IP service. This announcement marks the first of many related to an expansion of VoIP and other managed services in existing and new markets.

LightEdge now offers the Polycom SoundPoint IP 550, 560 and IP 650 phones with Polycom HD Voice technology, providing twice the clarity and richness of ordinary phone calls. Advanced technologies include wideband audio, enhanced signal processing and its patented Acoustic Clarity Technology for superb voice quality that is high-fidelity as well as noise- and echo-free.

Logitech unveiled the company’s first wireless stereo headset designed for Internet calling with a PC: the Logitech ClearChat PC Wireless headset. The ClearChat PC Wireless headset combines high-performance stereo audio with 2.4 GHz wireless technology, allowing people the freedom to move around when they make VoIP calls – no wires attached.

The Logitech ClearChat PC Wireless enables people to move freely up to 33 feet from their computer. With the included USB transmitter, the headset effortlessly connects to a PC or Mac computer right out of the box – no software or pairing required. And to help ensure no call gets interrupted, the ClearChat PC Wireless headset’s 2.4 GHz wireless technology features both crisp, uncompressed stereo audio and an advanced algorithm that minimizes interference –even in the busiest wireless environments, such as an airport, office or hotel.

CSR announces its BlueVox2 mono headset solution costing just $5; the world's lowest cost advanced Bluetooth headset. BlueVox2 features extremely low power consumption and zero cost noise reduction. CSR's design incorporates a number of world firsts, including AuriStream for superior voice quality, simultaneous connection of multiple devices and support for Bluetooth version 2.1+EDR. BlueVox2 also presents headset manufacturers with the opportunity to design the world's smallest Bluetooth headsets through an ultra small 4.5x5.5mm BGA package option.

The low eBOM of $5 includes the BlueVox2 QFN chip, together with all of the components necessary for a Bluetooth mono headset mounted on a four-layer printed circuit board. BlueVox2 is incredibly power efficient, permitting 15 hours talktime with a small 120mAh battery. BlueVox2's range of features also includes hardware-based noise reduction technology at no extra cost. CSR's all inclusive eBOM helps OEMs keep their costing simple and predictable.

Phonetime is accelerating the expansion of its telecommunications network. This expansion comes as a direct result of two consecutive months of record revenue, totalling nearly $25 million, and the anticipated continued growth due to the integration of the recently acquired Symphony Telecom. The 2008 year-to-date revenue is 80% higher than the first two months of 2007 and already surpasses the entire Q1 - 2007 revenue of $21.3 million.

Phonetime has placed orders with Alcatel-Lucent, its main switching hardware provider, as well as other key suppliers for its VoIP network infrastructure in Toronto. Phonetime is also in the process of completing the move of its telecommunication switches into new network co-location facilities built specifically for them by Bell Canada. These new facilities are maintained by the same property management and security service used by Bell. The new space is double the size of Phonetime's previous location and allows for continued expansion into the foreseeable future.

Streamcore published a list of key considerations for successfully deploying VoIP. Streamcore issues these tips to inform organizations that VoIP phones are not to blame for dropped or delayed calls, but rather the organization needs to ensure their network can handle the congestion from other traffic as well as properly prioritizing VoIP traffic.

As more organizations deploy VoIP, it is important to have quality calls that are not disrupted by other business-critical applications sharing bandwidth such as video conferencing, file transfers, Citrix or email which also take up bandwidth and compete with VoIP. If VoIP does not get the bandwidth needed to run properly, calls will become noticeably patchy and delayed, and will affect the organization’s day to day business. Organizations need to allot the necessary bandwidth to handle applications, especially when there are various applications running on the network

Infradapt is proud to announce its enhanced relationship with Digium, the Asterisk company, as a Select Reseller. Asterisk offers a full menu of business phone features like unified messaging, advanced voice mail features, conference calling and other highly desirable productivity features.

Digium is the creator and driving force behind Asterisk, the open source voice communications software deployed by more than 3.5 million servers worldwide to manage VoIP calls for businesses and individuals. More resellers, telecom professionals and software developers choose Digium's products than those of any other open source telephony company because only Digium delivers the technical superiority, security and flexibility associated with Asterisk. Asterisk powers Digium's family of software and hardware appliances including AsteriskNOW, Asterisk Business Edition and Switchvox.

RingCentral has closed its series B funding, raising $12 million from new lead investors DAG Ventures and NCD Investors and returning investors Sequoia Capital and Khosla Ventures. RingCentral also announced that it surpassed 50,000 active customer accounts, doubling its customer base in one year. Accounts range from one to many subscribers, typically in small businesses with 20 or fewer employees.

The company will use the new funding to enhance its products and services, build new partnerships and distribution channels and increase awareness among its large and growing base of small business customers.

Fonality releases PBXtra 4.0, an all new version of its phone system designed for the modern workplace. PBXtra now includes FindMe with Boomerang Mobile Integration, a feature that uses presence detection to automatically find employees on their mobile devices, allowing them to answer the call or bounce it to another extension. A host of other new features deepen PBXtra integration with mobile phones and web browsers, enhance support of branch offices, and make ongoing management of the phone system easier than ever.

The new FindMe capability in PBXtra 4.0 ups the ante in the Find-Me-Follow-Me feature wars. Not only does it allow employees to decide when and how they will be found according to their personal schedule and rules, but FindMe also has built-in presence detection. The system observes a person’s keyboard and mouse activity and can route calls to their mobile phone or other number when they are inactive on their computer

Raketu released its WebIM web-based global instant messaging application. In addition to Raketu’s voice calling, SMS-Texting, file sharing and other communications, information and entertainment services, the new application allows any user, anywhere, to send and receive instant messages from any device totally free – without any download. Raketu’s new WebIM also unifies instant messaging with the Raketu download client, so that users on Raketu’s website, mobile websites and from the download client can instant message and share information.

Qwest announces several Voice over IP enhancements to its OneFlex product suite. Business customers now get new data features that put them in control when using their IP-based phone service to call anywhere in the world.

Within the Qwest OneFlex product portfolio are OneFlex Hosted VoIP and OneFlex Integrated Access products. They now have the three shared benefits from the VoIP upgrades:

• Compression – allows customers to maximize their existing bandwidth to place more calls and send data.
• Escape to Operator – enables inbound callers to access an operator from their voice mail simply by pressing ‘0’ for assistance.
• Sub Office Administrator Portals – provides more flexibility for office administrators to manage their systems whether employees are in the office or working remotely.

Radware has joined the University of New Hampshire's InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) VoIP Technology Consortium. As a member of this consortium, Radware will be able to test its VoIP and SIP-enabled products in terms of compliance, interoperability, and quality.

Radware's decision to adhere to the UNL-IOL's VoIP consortium is based on its observations of the carrier market. With the arrival of next generation convergence applications, the carrier market is offering new SIP-based services, creating new opportunities for users to collaborate and exchange information. Additionally, as the global use of SIP adoption increases in carrier access, applications and trunking, it creates a need for vendors and system integrators to provide carriers and operators with solutions supporting carrier-grade requirements. This imposes a great burden on application and system development not typically addressed in the product scope but left to be handled in the system integration phase. As a result, Radware is focusing its efforts on expanding its product offering to fulfill these needs.

Tseyva introduces a new line of products for it's partners to offer a complete range of VoIP based calling services. Existing services offered by Tseyva include PC2Phone, Device2Phone and Calling Card services to which the mVoIP service has been recently added. All these services can be managed via the comprehensive Service Management and Reselling Tool (SMART). These services are currently being offered across 80 countries globally covering over 400 resellers.

Tseyva has seen a steadfast growth and has stepped into to its fourth successful year in the industry where survival has been difficult. One of the resounding reasons behind this is the loyalty and trust of its mature and growing customer base. Tseyva is committed to build on this strength to offer unmatched solutions to address the current needs of its demanding customer base.

AT&T U-verse VoIP rolls out in Kansas City, Kan., bringing consumers a next-generation digital voice service delivered over the AT&T U-verse Internet Protocol network. U-verse Voice brings together customers' AT&T wireline and wireless voice, broadband and TV services with unique features that provide a new level of integration, convenience and control.

AT&T U-verse Voice completes the company's IP triple play. With U-verse Voice, customers receive a new set of features that highlight the benefits of having advanced video, broadband, and wireless and wireline voice services from a single provider - and all on one bill.

AT&T U-verse Voice is a managed IP-based service that is delivered over AT&T's fiber-rich network, unlike many VoIP providers that offer best-effort digital phone services over the public Internet. This allows U-verse Voice customers to enjoy great sound quality and reliability, as well as unmatched calling features that combine with customers' AT&T U-verse TV, broadband and AT&T wireless services.