AudioCodes and MailVision announce that iPico, a mobile SIP client solution developed by MailVision, is compatible with iPhone and iPod touch. iPico is currently available at Apple's App Store. Other devices such as the Nokia (Symbian) and Windows mobile phones are already supported and deployed.

Small and medium-sized businesses often turn to hosted IP PBX services for rich features, multi-site convenience, zero maintenance and lower phone bills. Now they’ll have help picking the right phones. Junction Networks, makers of Hosted VoIP service OnSIP, has begun a review site where their engineering team will regularly post evaluations and the results of their independent, vigorous tests on SIP phones, soft phones and other user agents.

Nimbuzz announces the launch of its multi community mobile social messenger application for Android handsets. Unique for Android users, Nimbuzz introduces a revolutionary buddy list layout, Skype IM, a time-sensitive user interface, home-screen notifications, auto-reconnect, clickable URLs, and local social network support to make Nimbuzz the most sophisticated IM application for Android handsets.

XO Communications announces new enhancements to its VoIP services portfolio that help businesses and large enterprises with distributed locations simplify and streamline their IP-based communications networks.

To date, more than 16,000 businesses nationwide with more than 680,000 end users have deployed VoIP services from XO Communications. The latest enhancements to the company's award-winning VoIP services portfolio, which includes XO IP Flex, XO IP Flex with VPN and XO SIP, will greatly enhance the communications capabilities of mid-sized and enterprise business customers seeking a single nationwide voice and data solutions provider.

FreedomVOICE released a premier VoIP phone buyer's guide for the FreedomIQ service. The guide will help decision makers select the best VoIP phone for their business.

“There are literally hundreds of VoIP phones to choose from,” says Eric Thomas, CEO of FreedomVOICE. “This buyer’s guide lists our most popular phones and gives business owners the information they need to make an informed decision.”

Mobile VoIP has made undeniable progress toward becoming a mainstream technology, and its adoption by cellular network operators will be an important step in the mobile industry's evolution to all-IP technologies and services, according to the latest report from Unstrung Insider, a paid research service from TechWeb's Unstrung.

Mobile VoIP: A Disruptive Service Goes Mainstream analyzes the latest developments and trends driving mobile VoIP applications and services. It examines the technology issues that have confronted mobile VoIP upstarts and the solutions that they have developed to overcome them. It also explores the commercial and technical challenges and opportunities facing startups and incumbent mobile phone operators and handset makers. Finally, this report profiles 12 mobile VoIP providers, exploring their strategies for tapping into the young and promising market for IP-enabled voice offerings.

8x8 is providing voice trunking services to cloud telephony solution provider CallFire. CallFire began offering its hosted power-dialing services to small business, call center and enterprise customers over 8x8's established VoIP network last week.

The agreement between the two companies links 8x8's enterprise-class SIP trunking service together with CallFire's cloud telephony platform, currently in use by over 14,000 businesses.

Broadview Networks has signed an agreement to acquire select assets of Natural Convergence Inc. of Ottawa, Canada. NCI is an award-winning provider of hosted VoIP applications targeted at the small- and medium-sized business market.

With the purchase, Broadview Networks will acquire the intellectual property, previously purchased under a license agreement, including the source code, of NCI’s premier application Silhouette. Silhouette is the enabling technology behind Broadview’s industry-leading hosted IP phone solution, OfficeSuite.

TalkSwitch announces the availability of its cordless IP-PBX solutions. The combination of TalkSwitch VS hybrid phone systems and the TS-850i cordless DECT phone delivers unparalleled connection choice, ease of installation and performance to small and multi-location businesses.

Designed exclusively for small business, TalkSwitch phone systems are feature-rich, all-in-one solutions that deliver customers big business features that fit small business budgets. The systems work with traditional and VoIP networks and both analog and IP phones. In addition to mission-critical features like voicemail and auto attendants, TalkSwitch systems also offer integrated call control using a patented remote extension feature. Using remote extensions, cell phones can also be added to the system with full integration, not just call forwarding. It’s about professional image, efficiency and flexibility.

VoicePulse has recently announced new promotional offers on their inbound Toll Free service, including increased number inventory and lower introductory per-minute rates.

Price Match Guarantee

VoicePulse will match or beat any competing provider's current toll free pricing. All porting and activation fees will also be waived for both new and existing customers taking advantage of the price match offer.

The explosive growth of the VoIP market, has compelled security vendors to look for solutions to harden VoIP installations for their clients. When Salare Security recently announced its vPurity solution to address VoIP security, one OEM Security vendor jumped at the opportunity to license it to protect its clients from the increasing security risks of VoIP that require mitigation.

In last week’s segment of “Hosted VoIP vs. Premise Based VoIP: The Honest Truth,” David Byrd, VP of Marketing and Sales at Broadvox and Eric Thomas, CEO of FreedomVOICE, provided valuable answers to questions on security, bandwidth, equipment, and costs.

This week, we bring you the final segment of the 3part series. Read the Q&A below to hear Byrd and Thomas respond to questions on SIP trunking, best practices for shopping an IP-PBX, the main benefits of the two technologies, and the best system for each business.

Voiceserve unveiled the Vippie Softphone Dialer for the iPhone and iPod products. Voipswitch customers now have the facility to expand their modules to include the iPhone, thus giving them more scope to expand and enhance their businesses. The Vippie Softphone for iPhone is specifically designed and can be incorporated in softswitch’s other than the Voipswitch Solution. The Voipswitch iPhone dialer has the same features as the very popular Voipswitch Symbian dialer.

Digium announces that Polycom has signed on to be a platinum sponsor of the upcoming AstriCon Open Source Telephony Conference and Exhibition. The Digium-sponsored event, now in its sixth year, attracts hundreds of software developers, integrators, resellers, enterprise Asterisk users and Digium partners working with phone systems, unified communications and VoIP.