Packet8 announces the introduction of Packet8 Virtual Trunking, a broadband agnostic IP trunking solution that allows a business to benefit from the cost efficiencies of VoIP while retaining their existing phones and phone system hardware and optimizing the use of their existing connectivity to the Internet.

Packet8 Virtual Trunking provides companies that have already made a substantial or recent investment in phone system hardware with an opportunity to reduce recurring monthly service and toll charges by delivering digital quality dial tone service over their broadband connection rather than a separate voice circuit from an incumbent or local exchange carrier. The company's existing phone system equipment continues to provide the user feature set while the Packet8 Virtual Trunking services provide dial tone together with local, long distance and international call routing services to that equipment from the Packet8 digital VoIP network.

Sylantro Systems will provide hosted VoIP solutions to HT Mostar, one of Bosnia-Herzegovina's incumbent telecom operators partially owned by Croatian Telecom, part of a Deutsche Telekom group. Beginning in Q3 2008, HT Mostar will launch VoIP services based on Sylantro’s renowned Synergy Multiplay Application Feature Server. HT Mostar will also utilize Sylantro’s ComMarketing program, under which Sylantro will work with HT’s sales and marketing departments to develop processes for strategy, provisioning, market launch and service delivery, highlighting Sylantro’s end-to-end solutions-oriented approach to customer engagements.

Raketu debuts its social networking integrated communications web application optimized for the BlackBerry. The new web-based application allows BlackBerry users to participate and share with their friends, family and business colleagues, both inside and outside of the Raketu network. Users can add and participate in blogs, bulletins, comments, groups, friends through conventional social networking and through Raketu's real-time communications. Users can also store and share their media, making it easy to take pictures or videos on their mobiles, save them on Raketu and share them with anyone whether they are on Raketu or not. Raketu also allows sharing with other social networks, including Facebook and MySpace, and users can make international calls, sms-text, instant message, and email totally free or at Raketu's ultra-low rates -- all from within the BlackBerry application.

Rebtel is staying true to itself, its roots, and its customers. Free mobile calling between 47 countries is alive and well at Rebtel. No strings attached. No restrictions. And, no compromise on quality. Rebtel was created to give consumers worldwide an alternative to mobile operators' outrageous charges for making international calls.

How Rebtel works

• Rebtel gives people local phone numbers in their country that connect them directly with their friends, family or work colleagues who live abroad.
• By making all calls local, people can call each other as often as they like and talk as long as they want, for little or nothing more than the cost of the local calls.
• That means, for example, Rebtel gives someone living in San Francisco a local San Francisco phone number that connects them directly to their friend or family member in London, and Rebtel gives the person in London a local London phone number to reach their contact in San Francisco.
• Smart Calls: Free between 47 countries

Dial2Do and JAJAH bring you hands-free voice-activated global calling – simply by saying the words.

How it Works

Using Dial2Do, you simply call a local number (+1-213-325-2615 in the U.S.), say the word “JAJAH,” and then select one of three JAJAH services—call, text or conference.

• To call a contact, say “JAJAH call”
• To send a JAJAH text message (SMS) say “JAJAH text”
• To set up a group call, say “JAJAH conference”

Patton announces their award-winning SmartNode Smart-Digital Telephone Adapter (S-DTA) is fully released and generally available.

As the only two-call ISDN VoIP CPE on the market that runs carrier-grade software -- Patton's SmartWare -- the S-DTA is the obvious choice for double and triple-pay service providers seeking an ISDN termination device. With touchless auto-provisioning and proven reliability in numerous carrier deployments, SmartWare offers proven interoperability with all major-brand softswitches and IP-PBXs.

Designed for deployment in ISDN small offices, branch offices, and homes, the device supports two concurrent voice or T.38 fax calls (Super G3 and V.34 capable). The very-low-cost, feature-rich S-DTA seamlessly connects up to 8 ISDN terminals over the S-bus to a service provider or private VoIP network.

ZyXEL to demonstrate its technological expertise in xDSL access solutions including IP-based central office equipment, remote DSLAMs, CPEs and digital home connectivity equipment next week at NXTcomm in Las Vegas.

ZyXEL will showcase its line of Multi-Service Access Node and xDSL IP DSLAMs. These solutions are ideal for fiber and copper deployments -- they are scalable, flexible and allow service providers to offer value added bundled voice, video and data services to their customers without extensive investment.

ZyXEL will have comprehensive end-to-end IP broadband access and VoIP solutions from COE to CPE on display at booth # SU7104 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, June 17 - 19.

Revenue from consumer telecommunication network services will grow at a steady annual clip of about 5.7%, on average, over the next five years, reports In-Stat. The strongest growth will be in the broadband and pay TV sectors, but 60% of total revenue will be derived from consumer mobile services, the high-tech market research firm says.

In-Stat just completed some new research and aggregated it with a wealth of existing research to produce a detailed quantitative analysis of this important market. “The digital divide will continue to grow. By 2012 broadband penetration in developed countries will exceed 85%, while developing countries languish at less than 10% penetration,” says Keith Nissen, the analyst who authored the report. “Over the next five years, 150 million PSTN lines will be eliminated, yet total voice revenue worldwide will remain steady. The ME/AFR and CALA regions will experience high mobile subscriber growth. Mobile operators in developed nations must look to new 3G applications and bundled services for increased ARPU. Despite the anticipated rapid growth of telcoTV services, in 2012, 73% of total payTV households worldwide will still be cable TV service subscribers.”

AT&T announces the availability of AT&T U-verse Voice in parts of Oklahoma City, bringing consumers a next-generation digital voice service delivered over the AT&T U-verse Internet Protocol network. U-verse Voice brings together your AT&T wireline and wireless voice, broadband and TV services — all on one bill — 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 and is available to all new and existing U-verse TV customers in the Oklahoma City area. With U-verse Voice, customers receive new features that highlight the benefits of having advanced video, broadband, wireless and wireline voice services from a single provider.

iSkoot has been selected as winner in the category of Mobile Technology for the 2008 MITX Technology Awards. The MITX Technology Awards, presented by the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange, recognize innovative technologies developed in the New England area, as well as the individuals and organizations responsible for driving these advancements. Honorees for this year's awards were announced last night in a ceremony at The Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge.

iSkoot is the first and only carrier- and consumer-friendly mobile VoIP solution. iSkoot offers a mobile download for Skype and also powers the Skypephone. Unlike the many operator-unfriendly mobile VoIP solutions in the market, iSkoot's mobile Skype solution leverages the circuit-switched voice networks of mobile operators, rather than the data channel, making it a viable choice for operators worldwide, while also optimizing call quality and connection, making it a consumer-friendly and functioning solution with an amazing quality of service.

Challenger Mobile announces the opening of the company's new offices in Singapore. The announcement follows on the heels of the recent hiring of two key Challenger Mobile executives and a commitment to a significant Asian marketing partnership.

According to Gartner Inc., while worldwide sales of mobile phones increased by 13.6 percent from Q1 2007 to Q1 2008, sales in the Asia/Pacific region increased by 26.6 percent, nearly twice the worldwide growth rates, over the same period. Most Asian countries remain strong markets in large part because mobile phones are the primary means of communication for many individuals. Mobile VoIP is well-suited for these markets because it offers significantly lower costs for roaming, long-distance and international calling, and international calls are commonplace for many Asians.

sipgate announces the immediate availability of a free application for the iPhone, which, for the first time allows consumers to natively use any VoIP service which uses the industry standard SIP. Consumers can now use their iPhones to make and receive VoIP calls from their devices over a Wi-Fi Internet connection using a wide variety of VoIP providers. The VoIP-enabling software is available from sipgate's website.

With the sipgate service, users can dial any number without using minutes from a wireless plan. This is particularly useful when calling to or from other countries, as call costs can be as high as $3 per minute. However, when using a VoIP service, costs can be kept as low as $0.01 per minute. sipgate is giving new users 111 free minutes for domestic calls for users to test out VoIP usage on the device.

Another benefit of sipgate is that consumers can use any domestic or international number provided by their VoIP service on their iPhone. This means that they can make and receive calls from different domestic and international numbers, all on a single device.

Over the last nine years Asterisk has emerged as world’s leading open source telephony engine and tool kit, however most people simply know it as an open source phone system.

In order to promote greater visibility as to the myriad of things that people can (and have) done with Asterisk, VoIP Supply has partnered with Digium to launch the “101 Things You Can Do With Asterisk Contest”.

Here are the pertinent details:

1. One contributor (at random) to the list of 101 things, will win a $1,500 VoIP Supply shopping spree sponsored by Digium and VoIP Supply.

2. To be eligible for the contest, one must simply post a use or application of Asterisk that they themselves (or someone they know has) actually done.

3. The contest is open until 101 unique uses or applications have been documented.

This not just an opportunity to pick-up some free some free hardware, but a great way to promote the open source community and find out all of the creative things people are doing with Asterisk.

I could hardly contain myself when I saw this press release come across the wires: Bat Phone meet the PizzaPhone!

An exciting alternative to the traditional ties and wrench sets that often appear at this time of year, the PizzaPhone is a unique gift for Father's Day, Graduation Day or almost any day.

It can be easily programmed to call a favorite pizzeria, and the number is dialed as soon as the handset is lifted. If another restaurant becomes the new favorite, it takes just a few seconds to re-program the phone's memory. A manual-dialed PizzaPhone is also available.

VoIP Supply has supplied VoIP phone system to NASCAR leader, Joe Gibbs Racing out of North Carolina. Joe Gibbs Racing purchased a complete IP-based phone system solution from VoIP Supply, comprised of equipment from leading manufacturers such as Aastra, Rhino Equipment and Sangoma Technologies.

Joe Gibbs Racing, the home of NASCAR superstars Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch has joined the trend of major companies switching to VoIP technology. As the team continues to ignite the racing world on the track, they will be leading the pack off the track, thanks to an IP-based phone system solution that will allow the company to lower costs, increase productivity and allow them to scale their telecommunications infrastructure as they grow.