CounterPath has been named as one of MDB Capital Group's "Best & Brightest" for 2011, an annual list of companies who ranked above the 90th percentile for technology leadership from more than 1,500 small cap companies with U.S. patents granted. MDB Capital Group's "Best & Brightest" list of companies is drawn from the populace of public companies that hold at least one U.S. patent and that have a market capitalization under $500 million dollars.

MiaRec announces the release of HD call recording. Award-winning call recording and monitoring solution – MiaRec - supports now G.722 wideband codec. This assures better compatibility with Polycom’s high definition IP phones, Cisco, Avaya, Grandstream and other IP phones, which support wideband codecs.

There are a lot of benefits of VoIP telephony, the most obvious one is cost. But does low cost always mean low quality? With G.722 codec the answer is absolutely not. HD VoIP telephony is a completely new level not only of VoIP telephony but of the world of communication in general. G.722 codec now enables VoIP conversations to be even clearer than traditional digital line/PSTN calls.

Acme Packet announces that Thailand’s Super Broadband Network has deployed additional Acme Packet Net-Net session border controllers as part of an expansion of its popular DataTalk service. DataTalk is a hosted VoIP service that enables local, international and private branch interconnect calling via SIP trunks connected to SBN via its leased and broadband access network. Acme Packet’s SBCs are used at SBN’s access and interconnect borders to deliver high quality of service, secure SBN’s service infrastructure and extend its services to a wide variety of enterprises and consumer subscribers.

The SIP School continues to establish itself as the provider of the global standard in SIP Training and certification by gaining a major partner in SoTel Systems. Based out of Saint Louis, Missouri, SoTel offers SIP services from trunking to collocation hosting services.

On deciding to offer The SIP School's range of SIP and VoIP training programs to SoTel clients, Value Added Resellers and SIP service agency channel, SoTel had this to say:

"The choice of SIP School was really not a decision at all. They are simply the best self-paced learning option for gaining not only knowledge of SIP Technology, but also how to sell it and the potential for an enterprise-class certification program for SIP through them is the 'icing on the cake.' This program is key to the education and certification of not only our Value Added Resellers but also our SIP channel partners. This is part of our complete plan for becoming the SIP Partner to have for all telecommunication VARs in 2011 and beyond." - Kevin Hill, Manager - Technical Assistance Center, SoTel Systems, LLC.

VTech announces that its new Avant 5000 model cordless VoIP phone has become the first handset in the world to be certified as compliant with CAT-iq 2.0, a certification programme introduced by the DECT Forum only in December last year. The programme tests devices on protocol, radio frequency level and especially on audio quality, one of the key drivers of CAT-iq.

CAT-iq stands for Cordless Advanced Technology - internet and quality. It was developed to meet the demands of the new generation of IP-based services and devices. The technology enables transport of voice via broadband, making it sound more natural and "true-to-life" than the standard Plain Old Telephone Network and 3G mobile communication. The DECT Forum is the international association of the wireless home and enterprise communication industry and has been offering certification of CAT-iq products at laboratories in Germany and Norway.

VocalTec is now offering softswitches, application servers and session border controllers at absolutely no charge. Any approved telecommunications company that arranges a "Bill and Keep" agreement with VocalTec's subsidiary, YMax Communications Corp., will receive free softswitches, application servers and session border controllers. A Bill and Keep is a pricing arrangement for the interconnection of two telecommunications networks under which each network agrees to terminate calls from the other network at no charge. This free offering can save companies hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars in some cases.

Infonetics Research released its fourth quarter 2010 (4Q10) Service Provider VoIP Equipment and Subscribers market share and forecast report.

ANALYST NOTE

"The shift to IP continues, as reflected in the continued rise of SBCs and the decline in trunk media gateways in 2010. SBCs ended 2010 with a phenomenal revenue increase of 42% over 2009 due to increases in IP interconnectivity in fixed and mobile networks, growth in the number of VoIP subscribers, and SIP trunking," notes Diane Myers, directing analyst for VoIP and IMS at Infonetics Research.

ASC will demonstrate its VoIP recording solution, EVOip, and quality management solution, INSPIRATIONpro, at the Unified Communications Expo 2011 on March 8-9, at the Olympia Exhibition Centre, London.

Widely considered as the UK’s leading business communications event, with more than 4,000 visitors in 2010, this year’s exhibition is divided into six technology tracks: voice, cloud, mobile, visual, collaboration and customer. ASC will focus on its quality, process and campaign management capabilities, with particular reference to its speech analytics application to customer interactions.

Alpheus Communications announces an important new relationship with 360networks. Alpheus will supply 360networks with last mile connectivity in the Texas market while 360networks provides reliable connectivity deep into the western United States.

“We are excited to add 360networks to our list of national suppliers,” said Chip Robertson, Alpheus’ Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

“Alpheus represents a good fit for 360networks, expanding our VoIP and Local Access footprint into Houston, Austin and San Antonio,” said Rick Coma, 360networks Senior Vice President. “We look forward to working together.”

VoX Communications has entered into an agreement with a person-to-person marketing firm to sell the Ojo Vision Digital Video Phone and service as one of its product offerings. This unique voice and video telephone service to consumers is also a business-class commercial solution to small and medium size business customers.

In addition to the true-to-life video calling experience, the plan includes a full suite of traditional calling features like caller ID, call waiting and 3-way calling. Innovative features like 3-way video conferencing, connecting to a large screen LCD or TV and unlimited video calling are also included.

CallArc.com expands free international calls to global audience; cost of calls are offset by voice and online advertisements. Callers can now use CallArc with various VOIP applications on the iPhone, Android and the PC. Simple registration means customers can sign up for the service in less than one minute, take short online surveys to earn up to $5 each, then may place an international call.

CallArc.com, an advertisement free calling service provider is now available in all countries. Unlike many calling service providers, CallArc is not only limited to US and Canada nor is it limited to low costs destinations. CallArc services are currently in use worldwide and callers can call any destination including landline and mobile phones. By opening up our services and supporting SIP compliant applications and devices, callers can now make calls using an iPhone VOIP App, Android VOIP app and PC dialers. Symbian VOIP app and a Windows media VOIP app are scheduled for release in a few weeks along with a web dialer to solve the problem of VOIP blocking in many countries where Free VOIP calls are banned.

Aptela announces the availability of Aptela v5.3, the latest release of the company’s cloud-based calling platform. Aptela v5.3 offers businesses the ultimate control to manage their business communications.

“With the release of Aptela v5.3, our customers now have the enhanced call control capabilities they need to easily manage their business communications, no matter their location,” said Ann Santorios, Vice President of Product and Business Development for Aptela. “We are pleased to continue to offer the latest innovations in calling functionality to meet the needs of small businesses and mobile workers on-the-go.”

KeyOn announces the closing of the acquisition of certain wireless broadband networks and subscribers in East Central Texas from ERF Wireless. The acquired networks have demonstrated historically consistent revenues and currently generate positive EBITDA. It is expected that KeyOn will receive the benefits of the EBITDA immediately. KeyOn currently operates networks in Texas adjacent to some of the networks being acquired and expects to expand its presence around those networks.

This acquisition will represent the ninth acquisition of network assets and subscribers since the inception of Rural UniFi in the fourth quarter of 2009 and is the Company’s thirteenth acquisition overall.

SPIRIT DSP announces that Huawei Technologies has extended its license with SPIRIT DSP for HD voice and video to carriers. Huawei's product and services are deployed in over 100 countries and serve 45 of the world's top 50 telecom operators, as well as one third of the world's population.

Under terms of the agreement, Huawei, an existing SPIRIT customer since 2007, will use SPIRIT's TeamSpirit Voice&Video Engine PC in its IMS, Unified Communications and Fixed Mobile Convergence solutions to carriers from the Huawei core network, delivering a PC video softphone to Huawei's carrier customers.

SPIRIT DSP announces that its TeamSpirit Voice Engine Mobile is powering the new Viber application that offers free HD VoIP calls from the iPhone.

Available in the Apple App Store, Viber's free mobile VoIP app can make calls over 3G and Wi-Fi connections, bypassing the use of any cellular voice minutes; calls are free worldwide. Unlike other VoIP services such as Skype, Viber requires no registration or need to log-in to make calls. Viber product releases for Android, BlackBerry and Symbian are now in the works supported by SPIRIT.