Saturday, June 16, 2007

New Mobile Internet Phone and MP3 Player Combo

As for now it is only in Japan but there is a new gizmo combining a Skype and MSN Messenger wireless internet phone with an MP3 player compatible with both iTunes and Windows Media player. It has been released in Japan just 4 days ago.

The way it communicates wirelessly is through a long range, class one Bluetooth providing a range of up to 100 meters (or around 300 feet) in open area. That is for both cords free Skype-ing MSN-ing and uploading of tunes from the Bluetooth linked computer around.

The batter life of the unit is up to around 72 hours of continuous usage.

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Sunday, June 10, 2007

Cisco IP Phone

Cisco IP Phones are still quite popular in the corporate world even though in many places folks are moving into the open voice architectures like Asterisk.

Here is a couple popular Cisco Internet Phones:

Cisco IP Phone 7912G

This is an entry level Cisco VoIP Phone. The navigation on this phone is accomplished via the four soft buttons placed underneath its pixel LCD display on top. It has a good sound quality and carries a small build in speaker phone. With the Menu button one can easily show info like voice mail calls tracking for incoming and outgoing calls, including incoming calls, outgoing calls and missed calls.

Cisco 7936 Conference Station

This Cisco Phone as well as its predecessor the Cisco 7935 are well known in the business teleconferencing circles. It supports an external microphone as well as an external microphone kit also from Cisco. The unite sports full duplex operating allowing for a loud and clear two way conversation without distortions. The integrated keypad is handy and that along with the triangular shape gives the phone something of a spacey look.

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Thursday, June 07, 2007

Vonage Expands Its Internet Phone Service in Both Manitoba and Saskatchewan Canada

Vonage has expanded its services again. This time to the city of Brandon in Manitoba as well as Regina and Saskatoon in the Saskatchewan province of Canada.

This no doubt, gives move internet calling options to folks living in these places. As usual, the internet phone service requires a high speed internet access.

In the words of Joe Parent, vice president of marketing and business development for the Canadian branch of Vonage "I am excited that consumers in Brandon can now cut the cord with their existing phone company, and experience the freedom that Vonage phone service provides and enjoy great savings on their monthly phone bill"

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Sunday, June 03, 2007

New US Court Ruling On VoIP Internet Phone Companies

The US court ruled that US VoIP companies like Vonage or SunRocket need to pay Universal Service Fund (USF) fees. It will apply only to those Internet Phone companies that hook into the PSTN (Public Service Telephone Network - meaning the regular phones).

Currently regular phone company fees of that sort are around 12 percent of their long distance income. But since VoIP traffic is not categorized that way the FCC ruled it to be around 65 percent for VoIP companies. You can also compare that to some 37 percent of revenue that cellphone providers pay there.

In the words of FCC chairman Kevin Martin: "I am pleased that the court has affirmed the commission's action, which ensures that USF contribution obligations are administered in a competitively and technologically neutral manner on all phone providers, including interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers"

So what does it mean to an average VoIP consumer? Well, it's estimated to add around $1.30 to monthly subscription internet telephony fees. That sounds like reasonable, not making a huge difference in comparing VoIP to PSTN costs of operation.

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