Packet8 has been granted U.S. Patent No. 7,394,803 entitled "Distributed Local Telephony Gateway." The patent issued from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on July 1, 2008. The patent relates to IP communication systems and, more particularly, to broadband telephony services having distributed local gateways.

Since its establishment in 1987, 8x8's Packet8 has been awarded 73 United States patents covering a variety of voice and video communications, processing and storage technologies.

Nimbuzz raises $15 million Second Round funding. The new round of funding was led by Naspers/MIH with Nimbuzz's other major existing investor Mangrove Capital Partners also participating. Nimbuzz will use this latest funding to continue to develop its product offering into the most comprehensive and user friendly application for the widest range of handsets, across multiple IM and Social Network communities and in any country.

Founder and CEO Evert Jaap Lugt commented: "We are actively working on strategic distribution deals with leading social networks and mobile operators. It is our aim to blend our technology with existing mobile internet access to upgrade the value chain for business and consumers alike. Operators understand the need for services like Nimbuzz which provide traffic and drive the demand for mobile data plans, an ever more important revenue stream."

A new on-demand networking service that enables Verizon Business IP Trunking customers to improve the efficiency of their VoIP networks has been recognized by Technology Marketing Corporation's publication INTERNET TELEPHONY as a 2008 TMC Labs Innovation Award winner.

The Verizon Burstable Enterprise Shared Trunks (BEST) service enables IP Trunking customers in the U.S. to use idle VoIP trunk capacity in one location to accommodate an increase in traffic from another location. The BEST service capability helps customers better manage their local and long-distance traffic by sharing capacity on demand. This offering, introduced in December 2007, is currently available in 350 U.S. metropolitan markets to customers with select IP Trunking plans.

SightSpeed has teamed up with Dell to deliver “Dell Video Chat,” an easy-to-use communications application now being bundled with Dell’s new Studio laptops. Video chat is gaining acceptance as a great way to stay in touch with friends and family across the country or the globe. SightSpeed has been widely recognized by the industry for delivering best-in class video chat capability that works across multiple platforms including Windows, Apple and Linux. The application also includes instant messaging and Internet voice phone capability for a full suite of communications options.

Delivering a simple, easy to use communications experience that is intuitive was a top priority. The application is pre-installed on the systems and is activated with one mouse click. SightSpeed has also made it easy for users to share the application with their friends and family who can simply download the “invitee” client program by visiting http://www.sightspeed.com/dellvideochat.

fring releases the very first fringAdd-ons, new applications designed to enrich the experience of fring's awarded-winning mobile internet service & community which allows its users to talk, chat & interact with other fringsters and their popular online services from their mobile phones.

The first fringAdd-ons released include a handy mobile version of social networks, video streaming and email notification applications directly from within fring. First examples provide fringsters with connectivity to Facebook and to Google's social network Orkut, enabling continuous, real-time updates of all the key developments in your Facebook and Orkut accounts, Google Gmail notifier, alerting you to all your incoming Gmail messages and VTapTM the great new mobile video search and streaming service. The release of these early fringAdd-ons give fringsters a taste of a new, fun way to enjoy & experience the internet on-the-go from any supported mobile device, simply with the latest version of fring and a data plan.