Smoothstone has achieved 48.7% growth in revenues within the first six months of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008, a rate more than double the VoIP industry projected growth rate of 20.1%. The company attributes its strong performance to a combination of a consistent sales closure rate of 70% and superior customer service, resulting in 99% customer retention.

FreedomVOICE, creators of the FreedomIQ Hosted VoIP PBX, announce that Eric Thomas, CEO of FreedomVOICE, and David Byrd, VP of Sales and Marketing at Broadvox, have provided honest answers to tough questions on VoIP technology. The enlightening Q&A will be featured on the new FreedomIQ VoIP Blog.

Digium and TeleMatrix announce an interoperability partnership that provides Asterisk dealers and developers with a wide variety of new SIP and DECT SIP telephone solutions for hotel guestroom applications. TeleMatrix is an ISO 9001 and RoHS-certified manufacturer of SIP corded, DECT SIP cordless, analog and digital Centrex telephones for hotel, education, healthcare and general business applications. Through the 2006 merger of TeleMatrix and Scitec, the combined companies have deployed seven million telephones at 30,000 commercial customer locations worldwide. Hotel customers include Accor, Best Western, Choice Hotels International, Hilton, Hyatt, International Hotels Group, Marriott, Starwood, Swissotel and Wyndham.

Skype announces it is providing users with a greater amount of sharing and collaboration than ever before. Skype’s latest free feature, screen sharing, is now widely available for both Mac and Windows users. It allows callers on Skype to easily share what is on their screen, simply by calling another Skype contact and showing all or part of their screen to the other person, at no cost. For business users, screen sharing is a great feature for sharing a presentation, showing a demo or collaborating on a document. For consumers, it’s an easy way to share photos, videos or other creative projects.

J.D. Power and Associates, recently gave Verizon Business a leading ranking for customer satisfaction among large-enterprise data service customers, has now ranked Verizon Business highest in overall customer satisfaction among large-enterprise voice services providers.

Respondents to J.D. Power and Associates' 2009 Major Provider Business Telecommunications Study -- Voice Services determined that Verizon Business sets the benchmark for five of the six factors used to measure customer satisfaction: performance and reliability, sales representatives/account executives, billing, cost of service, and offerings and promotions. Verizon Business' overall score of 684 on a scale of 1,000 was 22 points higher than the large-enterprise segment average score, and the company ranked particularly high in both the offerings and promotions and billing factors.

Sipgate launches a new “Team Edition” of their US telephony service. The entirely web-based service replaces both phone systems and phone lines, allowing small and mid-size companies to move their corporate phone service to the cloud. sipgate team starts at $2 per user per month, and a 30-day free trial is available.

Nimbuzz launches new iPhone & iPod touch updates with a brand new desktop client for Apple Mac computers. Friends on Nimbuzz call and chat with each other for free. They access their favorite instant messaging and social networks with one login and from one location, using the internet or Wi-Fi. Today's announcement brings Nimbuzz' award-winning product to Mac desktops and laptops in addition to the iPhone, iPod touch and a wide range of other mobile handsets.

Educating end users, resellers, distributors and systems integrators about SIP trunking is on the agenda as Ingate Systems partners with TMC, leading IP-PBX vendors, SIP trunking service providers and industry thought-leaders to offer "SIP Trunking: Everything You Need to Know" seminars at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & Expo West 2009.

snom introduces the snom 870, an advanced touch screen desktop phone for the North American enterprise as well as small and mid-sized business markets. Designed for today’s information-driven workforce, the new phone is the latest addition to snom’s “8” series of fourth generation SIP phones and features a slim, elegant design and powerful multimedia capabilities anchored by its innovative color touch screen display and highly intuitive interface.

Apptix has been named SaaS Directory's July 2009 award winning VoIP provider. Apptix's hosted VoIP phone service provides small and mid-sized businesses with a cost-effective, feature-rich, scalable alternative to a costly in-house deployment. With unlimited long distance calling anywhere in the United States and Canada, combined with affordable monthly service plans, Apptix can save organizations up to 40 percent or more on their monthly telecommunications bills. Apptix's hosted solution eliminates the need to purchase or maintain a traditional, internal private branch exchange system.

SoliCall announces that InterMedia Marketing Solutions will be implementing SoliCall's PBXMate across its call center. SoliCall's PBXMate provides InterMedia Marketing Solutions with SoliCall unique features for audio improvement with high performance & robust quality that is suitable for any VoIP environment. InterMedia Marketing Solutions has hundreds of agents in its Asterisk PBX call centers.

TeleCommunication Systems announces that it supports the efforts of the National Emergency Number Association to prohibit state legislatures from raiding critical 9-1-1 funding. The economic recession has devastated the revenues of many states, forcing legislatures to search for extra dollars in other areas of their budgets. Many states have found caches of money in 9-1-1 funds that have been accumulated by 9-1-1 authorities over the years to pay for equipment and service upgrades. The redirection of these funds could have disastrous consequences on the preparedness and future viability of many 9-1-1 authorities to upgrade their technologies as needed.

Technology Marketing Corporation and Digium announce that they have once again teamed up to host a series of training courses at TMC’s INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO West 2009. This year’s event is scheduled to take place September 1-3, 2009 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Our friends at FreedomIQ VoIP Blog have been kind enough to include VoIP Monitor on their list of the "21 Top VoIP News Sites, Which is #1?" So, if you feel we've been doing a good job here at VoIP Monitor please leave a comment on their site naming us in your top 3 favorites.

The top 3 VoIP news sites will be announced August 4th in the FreedomIQ VoIP Blog!

ClearOne will be showcasing several new conferencing products at the upcoming Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, Monday, July 13 through Thursday, July 16. ClearOne will be showing the CHAT 70 and CHAT 170, brand new speakerphones specifically optimized for use with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. Both the CHAT 70 and CHAT 170 speakerphones easily connect via USB to laptops or PCs for natural, hands-free audio communication for users of Office Communicator 2007. The CHAT 70 and CHAT 170 deliver full-duplex capability for crystal-clear communications and are the perfect addition to the office or home office, providing convenient, high-quality audio. ClearOne is a certified member of the Microsoft Partner Program and has been rapidly releasing high performance audio solutions that support users of Microsoft’s unified communications platform.