Broadband World Forum Asia 2007
Conference 5-8 Jun 2007
Exhibition 6-7 June 2007
China World Hotel at China World Trade Center
Monday, April 23, 2007
National Summit on Telecom Expense Management - June 13-14, 2--7 - Westin St. Francis - San Francisco, CA
National Summit on Telecom Expense Management - June 13-14, 2--7 - Westin St. Francis - San Francisco, CA
Invest just 2 days with our expert speakers and you’ll:
Understand how the nation’s most progressive companies evaluate, cost justify and implement TEM solutions - and why TEM presents more risks than rewards for some!
Get the lowdown on best practices…from complete outsourcing, to Software as a Service (SaaS) to dedicated in-house TEM organizations...and how to zero-in on the approach that’s the best fit for your firm.
Discover how to avoid the 7 most common mistakes when you deploy your TEM plan.
Find out how to conquer the unique challenges of wireless expense management.TEM Power Panel!
Hear from C-level execs representing the industry’s leading TEM solutions providers and get answers to your toughest questions at this exclusive event.
Invest just 2 days with our expert speakers and you’ll:
Understand how the nation’s most progressive companies evaluate, cost justify and implement TEM solutions - and why TEM presents more risks than rewards for some!
Get the lowdown on best practices…from complete outsourcing, to Software as a Service (SaaS) to dedicated in-house TEM organizations...and how to zero-in on the approach that’s the best fit for your firm.
Discover how to avoid the 7 most common mistakes when you deploy your TEM plan.
Find out how to conquer the unique challenges of wireless expense management.TEM Power Panel!
Hear from C-level execs representing the industry’s leading TEM solutions providers and get answers to your toughest questions at this exclusive event.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Alcatel-Lucent wins $6 bln Verizon Wireless deal
Alcatel-Lucent wins $6 bln Verizon Wireless deal
Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:25 AM GMT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel-Lucentwon a three-year contract worth $6 billion to supply Verizon Wireless with network equipment, software and services, the companies said on Monday.
Alcatel-Lucent will continue to be the primary network infrastructure supplier to Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communicationsand Vodafone Group Plc , they said.
Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:25 AM GMT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent will continue to be the primary network infrastructure supplier to Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Zyxel Launches IP PBX and Phone Range
Friday March 23, 06:44 AM
By Rik Turner
Zyxel Corp has entered the IP PBX market, launching a device for SMB and a range of phones, including a dual-mode cellular and WiFi handset.
The Taiwanese vendor of networking gear into the consumer, SoHo and SMB markets has unveiled the X6004, an IP PBX delivered in a 2U box that scales from 32 to 128 lines, beyond which we can stack up to five boxes, which means we can support up to 640 lines in a single stack, said James Walker, product manager for Zyxel in the UK and Ireland.
For PSTN break-out,
the device can be fitted with either a BRI or PRI card to interface with an ISDN link. Meanwhile for inter-office comms within the same company, an X6004 can be deployed in one office with a VPN or leased line link to the other, whereupon remote office workers can make four-digit calls to colleagues in the other office and have their calls routed out to the PSTN network through the IP PBX on the main site.
At the same time, Zyxel is launching a range of IP phones, including two deskphones, a basic and a more feature-rich, two DECT handsets, two different flavours of softphone -- basic and multimedia -- and the dual-mode V660. The latter runs Windows Mobile 5.0 and has quad-band GSM as well as 11b/g WiFi connectivity, WPA encryption and a SIP client for VoWiFi calling.
All these products are new areas for Hsinchu-based Zyxel, which until now has offer SIP-based WiFi phones only. The DECT phones are a response to requests for less power-consuming cordless devices than WiFi handsets, and to support them on the infrastructure side, said Walker, the company will be adding DECT to its DSL/WiFi routers for the residential market in the coming months.
The Zyxel exec said the company has two target markets for the phones, namely the SME/SMB space up to 640 users, in which case it will go through its channel partners and offer them in conjunction with the X6004, and service providers for the consumer/residential market.
Were not aiming them at mobile operators, mainstream telcos or the big retail chains like [the UKs] Carphone Warehouse (LSE: CPW.L - news) , as the Nokias and Motorolas do, said Walker. Rather well target service providers who take our DSLAMs and CPE kit for DSL services so that they can offer them as a bundle for home users.
No pricing information was available for any of the new products, which have been formally launched but will actually go on general availability in the third quarter in North America and Europe.
Friday March 23, 06:44 AM
By Rik Turner
Zyxel Corp has entered the IP PBX market, launching a device for SMB and a range of phones, including a dual-mode cellular and WiFi handset.
The Taiwanese vendor of networking gear into the consumer, SoHo and SMB markets has unveiled the X6004, an IP PBX delivered in a 2U box that scales from 32 to 128 lines, beyond which we can stack up to five boxes, which means we can support up to 640 lines in a single stack, said James Walker, product manager for Zyxel in the UK and Ireland.
For PSTN break-out,
the device can be fitted with either a BRI or PRI card to interface with an ISDN link. Meanwhile for inter-office comms within the same company, an X6004 can be deployed in one office with a VPN or leased line link to the other, whereupon remote office workers can make four-digit calls to colleagues in the other office and have their calls routed out to the PSTN network through the IP PBX on the main site.
At the same time, Zyxel is launching a range of IP phones, including two deskphones, a basic and a more feature-rich, two DECT handsets, two different flavours of softphone -- basic and multimedia -- and the dual-mode V660. The latter runs Windows Mobile 5.0 and has quad-band GSM as well as 11b/g WiFi connectivity, WPA encryption and a SIP client for VoWiFi calling.
All these products are new areas for Hsinchu-based Zyxel, which until now has offer SIP-based WiFi phones only. The DECT phones are a response to requests for less power-consuming cordless devices than WiFi handsets, and to support them on the infrastructure side, said Walker, the company will be adding DECT to its DSL/WiFi routers for the residential market in the coming months.
The Zyxel exec said the company has two target markets for the phones, namely the SME/SMB space up to 640 users, in which case it will go through its channel partners and offer them in conjunction with the X6004, and service providers for the consumer/residential market.
Were not aiming them at mobile operators, mainstream telcos or the big retail chains like [the UKs] Carphone Warehouse (LSE: CPW.L - news) , as the Nokias and Motorolas do, said Walker. Rather well target service providers who take our DSLAMs and CPE kit for DSL services so that they can offer them as a bundle for home users.
No pricing information was available for any of the new products, which have been formally launched but will actually go on general availability in the third quarter in North America and Europe.
FCC eases wireless Web rules
FCC eases wireless Web rules
From Bloomberg News
March 23, 2007
The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday eased rules on wireless Internet services sold by telecommunications companies including AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. The wireless broadband order frees Internet access on hand-held devices from "commercial mobile radio service" rules that apply to wireless telephone services. Thursday's ruling subjects all wireless Internet services to the same rules as land line broadband access offered by telephone companies and cable providers such as Comcast Corp. The measure will encourage broadband investment by letting wireless Internet carriers compete on a level playing field with other high-speed providers, FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin said. The commission also invited public comment on whether to write net neutrality rules that would bar all broadband providers from charging companies such as Google Inc. new fees for priority network access. Both measures won unanimous approval from the five-member FCC panel. The commission's two Democrats generally agreed with the goal of applying consistent rules to all broadband services. Still, they warned that the wireless Internet order could erode consumer protections. "The multifaceted nature of wireless services and devices raises a whole host of novel questions that [the] order does not even attempt to answer," Democratic Commissioner Michael J. Copps said. Phone privacy rules would not cover all features of Apple Inc.'s iPhone, Copps said. The device, which the company plans to release in June, combines an iPod music player with a mobile-phone handset and will use AT&T's wireless network. The iPhone also will let users access the Internet for free in areas where unlicensed wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi, signals are available.
From Bloomberg News
March 23, 2007
The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday eased rules on wireless Internet services sold by telecommunications companies including AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. The wireless broadband order frees Internet access on hand-held devices from "commercial mobile radio service" rules that apply to wireless telephone services. Thursday's ruling subjects all wireless Internet services to the same rules as land line broadband access offered by telephone companies and cable providers such as Comcast Corp. The measure will encourage broadband investment by letting wireless Internet carriers compete on a level playing field with other high-speed providers, FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin said. The commission also invited public comment on whether to write net neutrality rules that would bar all broadband providers from charging companies such as Google Inc. new fees for priority network access. Both measures won unanimous approval from the five-member FCC panel. The commission's two Democrats generally agreed with the goal of applying consistent rules to all broadband services. Still, they warned that the wireless Internet order could erode consumer protections. "The multifaceted nature of wireless services and devices raises a whole host of novel questions that [the] order does not even attempt to answer," Democratic Commissioner Michael J. Copps said. Phone privacy rules would not cover all features of Apple Inc.'s iPhone, Copps said. The device, which the company plans to release in June, combines an iPod music player with a mobile-phone handset and will use AT&T's wireless network. The iPhone also will let users access the Internet for free in areas where unlicensed wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi, signals are available.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Microsoft Makes VoIP Phone Push
Microsoft Makes VoIP Phone Push New Response Point system,
built with partners, targets small and midsize enterprises. Also on tap this week: new VoiP phones from Linksys and Polycom. -->
-->
21, 2007 - By Richard Karpinski
Microsoft this week detailed a new small-business VoIP phone system, code-named Response Point, plus vendor partners to deliver the systems.
Response Point, now in beta testing and shipping later this year, supports both VoIP and conventional POTS service, and includes a voice-activated interface. Three vendors are developing phones based on Response Point specs: D-Link DVX-2000, Quanta Syspine and Uniden Evolo.
Microsoft said it designed the phones to allow small businesses to manage the VoIP systems and network connections themselves. To that end, the phones ship with a PC-based management console that enables tasks such as adding a new user or creating a call distribution list.
In addition to the Response Point hardware phones, Microsoft delivers a software-based VoIP foundation through Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007.
Microsoft said it will distribute the public beta versions of Communications Server 2007 and Communicator 2007 later this month. The Beta 2 release of Response Point is scheduled for early April.
Polycom also released new VoIP phones this week: the SoundPoint IP 330 and 320 entry-level VoIP phones, and the high-end SoundPoint IP 550, which includes SIP-based features for the enterprise.
Meanwhile, Linksys debuted two new phones: the 6-Line Color Display IP Desktop Phone (SPA962) and the 32-Button Attendant Console (SPA932). The new VoIP phones are targeted at small businesses using a hosted IP telephony service, a SIP-based PBS or large-scale IP Centrex deployment, Cisco said.
The fact that Microsoft is partnering with handset vendors for its small-business solution is fairly interesting. I would have figured that Microsoft would have gone with a softphone solution (a la Office Communications Server). Perhaps Microsoft felt that going with handsets would provide a better user experience. Interestingly, voice-assessment company Psytechnics did a comparative study between a beta of Microsoft's Office Communications Server and "prototype USB handsets," and Cisco's CallManager 5.0 and 7961 IP phones. Psytechnics found that "Overall, the one-way listening speech quality provided by the combination of Microsoft's client and a USB handset was consistently better than that provided by Cisco's IP phones and CallManager, whether using G.711 or G.729." I, for one, was surprised. Sean GinevanNWC Contributing Editor
built with partners, targets small and midsize enterprises. Also on tap this week: new VoiP phones from Linksys and Polycom. -->
-->
21, 2007 - By Richard Karpinski
Microsoft this week detailed a new small-business VoIP phone system, code-named Response Point, plus vendor partners to deliver the systems.
Response Point, now in beta testing and shipping later this year, supports both VoIP and conventional POTS service, and includes a voice-activated interface. Three vendors are developing phones based on Response Point specs: D-Link DVX-2000, Quanta Syspine and Uniden Evolo.
Microsoft said it designed the phones to allow small businesses to manage the VoIP systems and network connections themselves. To that end, the phones ship with a PC-based management console that enables tasks such as adding a new user or creating a call distribution list.
In addition to the Response Point hardware phones, Microsoft delivers a software-based VoIP foundation through Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007.
Microsoft said it will distribute the public beta versions of Communications Server 2007 and Communicator 2007 later this month. The Beta 2 release of Response Point is scheduled for early April.
Polycom also released new VoIP phones this week: the SoundPoint IP 330 and 320 entry-level VoIP phones, and the high-end SoundPoint IP 550, which includes SIP-based features for the enterprise.
Meanwhile, Linksys debuted two new phones: the 6-Line Color Display IP Desktop Phone (SPA962) and the 32-Button Attendant Console (SPA932). The new VoIP phones are targeted at small businesses using a hosted IP telephony service, a SIP-based PBS or large-scale IP Centrex deployment, Cisco said.
The fact that Microsoft is partnering with handset vendors for its small-business solution is fairly interesting. I would have figured that Microsoft would have gone with a softphone solution (a la Office Communications Server). Perhaps Microsoft felt that going with handsets would provide a better user experience. Interestingly, voice-assessment company Psytechnics did a comparative study between a beta of Microsoft's Office Communications Server and "prototype USB handsets," and Cisco's CallManager 5.0 and 7961 IP phones. Psytechnics found that "Overall, the one-way listening speech quality provided by the combination of Microsoft's client and a USB handset was consistently better than that provided by Cisco's IP phones and CallManager, whether using G.711 or G.729." I, for one, was surprised. Sean GinevanNWC Contributing Editor
Sunday, March 11, 2007
+ 4Q06 VoIP quarterlies published by iLocusiLocus has published the 4Q06 VoIP quarterlies.
+ 4Q06 VoIP quarterlies published by iLocusiLocus has published the 4Q06 VoIP quarterlies. Reports reveal 4Q06 statistics in the area of (1) Carrier VoIP Equipment, (2) Enterprise VoIP Equipment, and (3) VoIP Minutes and Subscribers.In the Carrier VoIP Equipment market, 4Q06 saw shipment of over 9.9 million lines of nextgen Class 5, over 8.3 million lines of nextgen Class 4, and over 13.5 million service provider media gateway ports were shipped worldwide. Out of the Class 5 lines shipped, VoBB application lines showed a decline for the first time since 2004. However the business VoIP lines have significantly ramped up.In the Enterprise VoIP Equipment market, 4Q06 saw shipment of 2.29 million desktop IP phones, about 3.89 million IP PBX end user licenses, and 3.69 million enterprise VoIP gateway ports. An estimated 72,108 single mode VoIP over Wi-Fi handsets were shipped in 4Q06 in the enterprise segment, clearly pointing to the trend forward for dual-mode FMC handsets rather than single mode VoWiFi handsets.On the VoIP Minutes side, 4Q06 saw estimated 314.5 billion minutes of VoIP traffic carried by service providers worldwide. Of these minutes, 118.4 billion was local call volume, 174.3 billion was national long distance (NLD) call volume, and 21.8 billion was the international long distance (ILD) call volume.
+ News RoundupU.S. District Court has found Vonage guilty for infringing on three Verizon patents on VoIP technology. Vonage was ordered to pay $58 million, far less than the $197 million Verizon had requested. According to Verizon, Vonage's service is heavily dependent on the Verizon technology. Verizon said during the trial that it has lost 600,000 customers to Vonage as a result of the pilfered patents. The verdict also awards Verizon a 5.5 percent royalty on Vonage revenues for any future infringement.Akros Silicon, a semiconductor company, has secured $10.1 million in Series B financing led by Levensohn Venture Partners. Akros Silicon has developed mixed signal system-level IC solution that provides integration of Power over Ethernet (PoE) control, power management and interface to the Ethernet world. These ICs are used for bringing power to network attached appliances such as VoIP phones, wireless LAN access points, RFID tag readers, point-of-sale terminals, security cameras, remote access and home networked systems.Sonus Networks has announced IMS standards-based support for billing between different service provider's IP voice networks. The latest release includes support for standards-based feature, as outlined by the 3GPP, that enables operators to track individual calls throughout their own network and when the call is handed off to other network operators. According to Sonus it is one of the first telecommunications vendors to support this IMS-required billing feature.
+ Interview with Shahal Khan, CEO, CentileApplication server vendors have started to scale up their shipments. We saw a successful Netcentrex acquisition and Broadsoft is supposed to be filing an IPO soon. How does that make you feel?First and foremost, it is very good for the market. It shows that application space is now starting to take off and the market has started to move in that direction. Infrastructure is becoming more and more deployed where now carriers, enterprises and online companies that want to offer differentiated services - IMS services or converged services - are now looking at application service providers. So it is very good news for all of us in the market. It helps all of us.If we were to do a brand awareness survey Broadsoft will score higher over Centile even in Europe. Why are European companies like yourself less market savvy?It is a different way of doing business. It has also to do with management culture. The American management culture is very market minded and they are focused globally. Whereas European companies tend to be focused more on the regional market than on global market and are not as aggressive in sales and marketing. But now it is changing. We see now a lot of companies in Europe gearing up in terms of marketing. Centile as well is starting a large marketing campaign and we are opening offices in US, Middle East and Asia this year.Do you have any marketing advice for Asian or European VoIP vendors in order to be seen as leading vendors in the VoIP market?The most important advice that I can give is to focus on your market segment and be able to provide the best customer service support. It is best to start in your own region first, build regional case studies of success, build up your support organization and then utilize that in terms of marketing and sales. People in the market want to see vendors that have deployed large amounts and have done that successfully in every reference. Sales need to be supported locally by reference clients that have done large enough deployments on a large scale.You seem to be active in the FMC market. Can you tell us a little bit about your FMC efforts and whether you are gaining any traction there?We see more interest in GSM companies in deploying FMC service in order to pick more market from fixed line operators. We have just deployed our biggest deployment of FMC in Europe this year with the largest MVNO in Europe called Debitel.What are your plans in the immediate future? Are you seeking a suitable exit strategy right now?Centile has been doing business in the application server space for a long time. However we made ourselves openly available in the market since 2004. So, right now what we see is that we have a large and an open market for ourselves in Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa. Our strategy would be to lead in the EMEA and Asian markets and become the market leader in hosted and premise based PBX, and FMC. We have a new product called click to call product with macromedia which is unique in the market. Our goal at the moment is to continue to invest in our company’s sales and marketing and to increase that. We are not looking at exit right now. The market is still very early. We want to gain more share in the market.European companies do not seem to be keen to outsource their PBX type services. Is that a fact or a myth?The main reason is that most of the large European companies are used to managing the PBX services. They have a lot of issues in giving out their large internal networks to carriers. We think that trend is going to continue. Most European, Asian and Middle East countries that we are in trials with are not very successful with large enterprises. However large enterprises are coming to us via IT vendors. Because of their culture of maintaining their own network and control of their own network it is likely that if there are over 500 employees, those organizations are going to deploy their own hosted PBX services. Anything under 500, then there is a possibility that the carrier may win. I think it comes down to way IT teams and telecom teams in Europe are structured and built. They want their own control over the systems.Why is the market led to believe that IP Centrex or hosted PBX is basically a North American SMB phenomenon?There are a few reasons for this. We have seen a lot of traction in terms of deployments by carriers in that market only. Most of the carriers have deployed this service in North America and there are not very large deployments in Europe, Africa or Middle East. The market in North America is ready for this kind of service right now. The reason being infrastructure, very high level of competition, and low barriers to entry. These features are unique to the North American market but now these are moving very quickly to Europe and other parts of the world where we see more deregulation and competition increasing. North American market has also given the carriers the opportunity to market their services little bit faster.
+ 2006 update on Fixed-Mobile ConvergenceCellular operators gain revenue from FMC in several ways. They can potentially gain new subscribers, substitute fixed minutes, and stimulate a higher call volume. But they also lose a healthy margin on minutes that are transported over WiFi due a large price differential between a Voice-over-WiFi call and a cellular call. The overall impact of FMC on cellular operators depends on proximity to WiFi access, and the calling patterns of cellular subscribers.In the US, cellular operators face a loss of $3.3 billion a year by 2007 due to FMC. UK cellular operators could lose $1.3 billion a year by 2007 due to FMC. These are estimates from our recent report on FMC. Sensitivity analysis done in the report shows that cellular operators in the US need to gain over 70 percent of the FMC market to balance the loss. The other way to balance the impact is to secure migration from fixed to FMC accounts. In the latter case, US cellular operators would need to own at least 78 percent of such FMC subscriptions.FMC for cellular operators is somewhat analogous to the opportunities and threats VoIP presented to fixed line operators in the late nineties. Since the dynamics in the market are different now, it remains to be seen what strategy the cellular operators will adopt in order to turn FMC into a net gain scenario.There have been very few commercial launches of FMC service. Service providers are mostly still in the stage of evaluation of FMC because the market is still unclear as to what convergence means to the consumer. Europe has been more active in FMC than other regions. Europe and North America account for nearly 90 percent activity. However, as mentioned, Europe is much more aggressive in FMC, and the US is relatively behind.Enterprise seems to be a lot more promising because that is where the cost reduction is most probably achievable. The opportunity for incremental revenue in enterprise FMC is probably higher than in consumer market. Consumer market is probably more of a cost reduction initiative than a revenue opportunity, especially for cellular service providers.There are several flavors of FMC available. One of the ways to categorize them is by considering the types of networks that are brought together from the wireless and wireline sides. On the wireless side there is not much difference. We have GSM, CDMA, and perhaps UMTS. On the wireline side we would have the traditional PSTN or the IP. Furthermore, on the IP side if we look at the end point that gives user access to the broadband IP, you would be looking at WiFi, Bluetooth, Wimax and maybe also the Femtocell now. Out of the IP access options, the one the industry seems to have standardized around is the WiFi. Therefore the current FMC market is mostly about WiF-Cellular convergence.If we narrow down the definition of FMC to WiFi-Cellular convergence, then there are about a dozen carriers that have put commercial FMC services on offer in the market. Five of the service providers have gone for the UMA option while the others have gone for the Pre-IMS solution based on SIP. It would be fair to mention that UMA based offerings are making more progress. There are several factors which determine the option implemented by the operators for Fixed-Mobile convergence. These include the existing infrastructure, time factor, long term objectives, CAPEX, services mix, and the target market.In terms of subscriber numbers, Fixed-Mobile Convergence is still in its infancy. Appreciable subscriber signups are not expected earlier than the second half of 2007. As of end 2006, very few commercial launches had taken place and mostly trials were going on. Around 200 to 300 FMC trials are currently going on and they are each in various stages of development. Interviews with service providers reveal that they are anticipating between 1 to 5 percent penetration once the service is fully deployed. By the end of 2007 iLocus forecasts the total number of FMC users at around 6.5 million worldwide. This is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 110 percent to 126.4 million subscribers by the year 2011. The present number of FMC subscribers worldwide is estimated at 436,000.Although it would be too early to rank vendors in this space, however there are clear indications as to who is gaining traction in this early adopter phase. Alcatel leads in both the UMA and Pre-IMS/IMS VCC categories. Within UMA, Kineto Wireless follows Alcatel. In the Pre-IMS/IMS VCC category, Alcatel’s lead is followed by NewStep and Convergin at number two and three respectively. For the overall FMC deployments, Alcatel leads the market with Kineto Wireless and NewStep at number two and number three respectively.For more information on the FMC report please click here.
+ News RoundupU.S. District Court has found Vonage guilty for infringing on three Verizon patents on VoIP technology. Vonage was ordered to pay $58 million, far less than the $197 million Verizon had requested. According to Verizon, Vonage's service is heavily dependent on the Verizon technology. Verizon said during the trial that it has lost 600,000 customers to Vonage as a result of the pilfered patents. The verdict also awards Verizon a 5.5 percent royalty on Vonage revenues for any future infringement.Akros Silicon, a semiconductor company, has secured $10.1 million in Series B financing led by Levensohn Venture Partners. Akros Silicon has developed mixed signal system-level IC solution that provides integration of Power over Ethernet (PoE) control, power management and interface to the Ethernet world. These ICs are used for bringing power to network attached appliances such as VoIP phones, wireless LAN access points, RFID tag readers, point-of-sale terminals, security cameras, remote access and home networked systems.Sonus Networks has announced IMS standards-based support for billing between different service provider's IP voice networks. The latest release includes support for standards-based feature, as outlined by the 3GPP, that enables operators to track individual calls throughout their own network and when the call is handed off to other network operators. According to Sonus it is one of the first telecommunications vendors to support this IMS-required billing feature.
+ Interview with Shahal Khan, CEO, CentileApplication server vendors have started to scale up their shipments. We saw a successful Netcentrex acquisition and Broadsoft is supposed to be filing an IPO soon. How does that make you feel?First and foremost, it is very good for the market. It shows that application space is now starting to take off and the market has started to move in that direction. Infrastructure is becoming more and more deployed where now carriers, enterprises and online companies that want to offer differentiated services - IMS services or converged services - are now looking at application service providers. So it is very good news for all of us in the market. It helps all of us.If we were to do a brand awareness survey Broadsoft will score higher over Centile even in Europe. Why are European companies like yourself less market savvy?It is a different way of doing business. It has also to do with management culture. The American management culture is very market minded and they are focused globally. Whereas European companies tend to be focused more on the regional market than on global market and are not as aggressive in sales and marketing. But now it is changing. We see now a lot of companies in Europe gearing up in terms of marketing. Centile as well is starting a large marketing campaign and we are opening offices in US, Middle East and Asia this year.Do you have any marketing advice for Asian or European VoIP vendors in order to be seen as leading vendors in the VoIP market?The most important advice that I can give is to focus on your market segment and be able to provide the best customer service support. It is best to start in your own region first, build regional case studies of success, build up your support organization and then utilize that in terms of marketing and sales. People in the market want to see vendors that have deployed large amounts and have done that successfully in every reference. Sales need to be supported locally by reference clients that have done large enough deployments on a large scale.You seem to be active in the FMC market. Can you tell us a little bit about your FMC efforts and whether you are gaining any traction there?We see more interest in GSM companies in deploying FMC service in order to pick more market from fixed line operators. We have just deployed our biggest deployment of FMC in Europe this year with the largest MVNO in Europe called Debitel.What are your plans in the immediate future? Are you seeking a suitable exit strategy right now?Centile has been doing business in the application server space for a long time. However we made ourselves openly available in the market since 2004. So, right now what we see is that we have a large and an open market for ourselves in Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa. Our strategy would be to lead in the EMEA and Asian markets and become the market leader in hosted and premise based PBX, and FMC. We have a new product called click to call product with macromedia which is unique in the market. Our goal at the moment is to continue to invest in our company’s sales and marketing and to increase that. We are not looking at exit right now. The market is still very early. We want to gain more share in the market.European companies do not seem to be keen to outsource their PBX type services. Is that a fact or a myth?The main reason is that most of the large European companies are used to managing the PBX services. They have a lot of issues in giving out their large internal networks to carriers. We think that trend is going to continue. Most European, Asian and Middle East countries that we are in trials with are not very successful with large enterprises. However large enterprises are coming to us via IT vendors. Because of their culture of maintaining their own network and control of their own network it is likely that if there are over 500 employees, those organizations are going to deploy their own hosted PBX services. Anything under 500, then there is a possibility that the carrier may win. I think it comes down to way IT teams and telecom teams in Europe are structured and built. They want their own control over the systems.Why is the market led to believe that IP Centrex or hosted PBX is basically a North American SMB phenomenon?There are a few reasons for this. We have seen a lot of traction in terms of deployments by carriers in that market only. Most of the carriers have deployed this service in North America and there are not very large deployments in Europe, Africa or Middle East. The market in North America is ready for this kind of service right now. The reason being infrastructure, very high level of competition, and low barriers to entry. These features are unique to the North American market but now these are moving very quickly to Europe and other parts of the world where we see more deregulation and competition increasing. North American market has also given the carriers the opportunity to market their services little bit faster.
+ 2006 update on Fixed-Mobile ConvergenceCellular operators gain revenue from FMC in several ways. They can potentially gain new subscribers, substitute fixed minutes, and stimulate a higher call volume. But they also lose a healthy margin on minutes that are transported over WiFi due a large price differential between a Voice-over-WiFi call and a cellular call. The overall impact of FMC on cellular operators depends on proximity to WiFi access, and the calling patterns of cellular subscribers.In the US, cellular operators face a loss of $3.3 billion a year by 2007 due to FMC. UK cellular operators could lose $1.3 billion a year by 2007 due to FMC. These are estimates from our recent report on FMC. Sensitivity analysis done in the report shows that cellular operators in the US need to gain over 70 percent of the FMC market to balance the loss. The other way to balance the impact is to secure migration from fixed to FMC accounts. In the latter case, US cellular operators would need to own at least 78 percent of such FMC subscriptions.FMC for cellular operators is somewhat analogous to the opportunities and threats VoIP presented to fixed line operators in the late nineties. Since the dynamics in the market are different now, it remains to be seen what strategy the cellular operators will adopt in order to turn FMC into a net gain scenario.There have been very few commercial launches of FMC service. Service providers are mostly still in the stage of evaluation of FMC because the market is still unclear as to what convergence means to the consumer. Europe has been more active in FMC than other regions. Europe and North America account for nearly 90 percent activity. However, as mentioned, Europe is much more aggressive in FMC, and the US is relatively behind.Enterprise seems to be a lot more promising because that is where the cost reduction is most probably achievable. The opportunity for incremental revenue in enterprise FMC is probably higher than in consumer market. Consumer market is probably more of a cost reduction initiative than a revenue opportunity, especially for cellular service providers.There are several flavors of FMC available. One of the ways to categorize them is by considering the types of networks that are brought together from the wireless and wireline sides. On the wireless side there is not much difference. We have GSM, CDMA, and perhaps UMTS. On the wireline side we would have the traditional PSTN or the IP. Furthermore, on the IP side if we look at the end point that gives user access to the broadband IP, you would be looking at WiFi, Bluetooth, Wimax and maybe also the Femtocell now. Out of the IP access options, the one the industry seems to have standardized around is the WiFi. Therefore the current FMC market is mostly about WiF-Cellular convergence.If we narrow down the definition of FMC to WiFi-Cellular convergence, then there are about a dozen carriers that have put commercial FMC services on offer in the market. Five of the service providers have gone for the UMA option while the others have gone for the Pre-IMS solution based on SIP. It would be fair to mention that UMA based offerings are making more progress. There are several factors which determine the option implemented by the operators for Fixed-Mobile convergence. These include the existing infrastructure, time factor, long term objectives, CAPEX, services mix, and the target market.In terms of subscriber numbers, Fixed-Mobile Convergence is still in its infancy. Appreciable subscriber signups are not expected earlier than the second half of 2007. As of end 2006, very few commercial launches had taken place and mostly trials were going on. Around 200 to 300 FMC trials are currently going on and they are each in various stages of development. Interviews with service providers reveal that they are anticipating between 1 to 5 percent penetration once the service is fully deployed. By the end of 2007 iLocus forecasts the total number of FMC users at around 6.5 million worldwide. This is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 110 percent to 126.4 million subscribers by the year 2011. The present number of FMC subscribers worldwide is estimated at 436,000.Although it would be too early to rank vendors in this space, however there are clear indications as to who is gaining traction in this early adopter phase. Alcatel leads in both the UMA and Pre-IMS/IMS VCC categories. Within UMA, Kineto Wireless follows Alcatel. In the Pre-IMS/IMS VCC category, Alcatel’s lead is followed by NewStep and Convergin at number two and three respectively. For the overall FMC deployments, Alcatel leads the market with Kineto Wireless and NewStep at number two and number three respectively.For more information on the FMC report please click here.
Report: Rising broadband subs fueling CPE market
Report: Rising broadband subs fueling CPE market
By Traci Patterson, CEDMarch 8, 2007
The increasing number of worldwide broadband subscribers is fueling the broadband CPE market, which grew 15 percent to $5.6 billion last year, according to Infonetics Research's latest Broadband CPE and Subscribers Report.
Surging residential gateway sales, which jumped 39 percent between Q1 and Q4 2006 to $2.9 billion, contributed to the rise in CPE manufacturer revenue. The most popular are multiservice gateways - ADSL IAD sales have nearly doubled for the last four years, and EMTA sales, which quadrupled in 2005, almost doubled in 2006.
Infonetics expects ADSL IADs and broadband gateways will keep annual revenue growth in the overall market to the low single digits through 2010, mostly because it expects competition will drive down the price per unit.
Worldwide revenue for voice CPE - including DSL IADs, EMTAs, VTAs, digital home gateways and broadband routers with integrated VTA capability - jumped 115 percent in 2006 and now accounts for 30 percent of the CPE market, Infonetics said.
"Right now, service providers are competing with each other for voice dollars, which is driving their purchase of EMTAs and IADs," said Infonetics analyst Jeff Heynen, in a statement. "Carriers are shifting their focus to video, though, so phase two of the triple play battle will spur big increases in gateway sales - especially VDSL broadband gateways, revenue for which is expected to quadruple in 2007, and digital home gateways, revenue for which will grow six-fold between now and 2010."
The worldwide broadband CPE revenue leader in 2006 was Linksys, followed by Thomson and Motorola. North America holds 39 percent of the worldwide market; it's followed by Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) with 35 percent, and Asia Pacific, with 20 percent.
Companies tracked for the report include 2Wire, ARRIS, AVM, Buffalo, D-Link, Foxconn, Huawei, Linksys, Motorola, NETGEAR, Scientific Atlanta, Siemens, Sumitomo, Thomson, Westell, ZTE, ZyXEL and others.
By Traci Patterson, CEDMarch 8, 2007
The increasing number of worldwide broadband subscribers is fueling the broadband CPE market, which grew 15 percent to $5.6 billion last year, according to Infonetics Research's latest Broadband CPE and Subscribers Report.
Surging residential gateway sales, which jumped 39 percent between Q1 and Q4 2006 to $2.9 billion, contributed to the rise in CPE manufacturer revenue. The most popular are multiservice gateways - ADSL IAD sales have nearly doubled for the last four years, and EMTA sales, which quadrupled in 2005, almost doubled in 2006.
Infonetics expects ADSL IADs and broadband gateways will keep annual revenue growth in the overall market to the low single digits through 2010, mostly because it expects competition will drive down the price per unit.
Worldwide revenue for voice CPE - including DSL IADs, EMTAs, VTAs, digital home gateways and broadband routers with integrated VTA capability - jumped 115 percent in 2006 and now accounts for 30 percent of the CPE market, Infonetics said.
"Right now, service providers are competing with each other for voice dollars, which is driving their purchase of EMTAs and IADs," said Infonetics analyst Jeff Heynen, in a statement. "Carriers are shifting their focus to video, though, so phase two of the triple play battle will spur big increases in gateway sales - especially VDSL broadband gateways, revenue for which is expected to quadruple in 2007, and digital home gateways, revenue for which will grow six-fold between now and 2010."
The worldwide broadband CPE revenue leader in 2006 was Linksys, followed by Thomson and Motorola. North America holds 39 percent of the worldwide market; it's followed by Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) with 35 percent, and Asia Pacific, with 20 percent.
Companies tracked for the report include 2Wire, ARRIS, AVM, Buffalo, D-Link, Foxconn, Huawei, Linksys, Motorola, NETGEAR, Scientific Atlanta, Siemens, Sumitomo, Thomson, Westell, ZTE, ZyXEL and others.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Apple annouce iPhone --- from dcview.com
蘋果電腦公司終於在 MacWorld 2007 正式發表了眾所盼望的多媒體手機 iPhone， Apple 股價也單日大漲了 8.3% 抱以熱烈回應。這款結合音樂、多媒體、上網、電子郵件、地圖等的多功能手機，嶄新體貼的操作介面令人耳目一新，勢必將為手機界掀起狂大波瀾。
超大精細 LCD螢幕
iPhone 搭載了高達 160ppi 解析度、超精細的 3.5吋螢幕，畫面像素 320x480，而觸碰直覺式的操作介面，不需要額外的鍵盤，也讓機身更加簡潔精緻。用戶可使用直式的傳統操作，或橫式的影音模式來欣賞影片。
革命性的手機操作模式
iPhone 同時也是四頻手機 850/900/1800/1900MHz (可惜沒有 3G!)，創新的電話簿、簡訊、來電顯示介面，用戶只需一指便可撥出電話。 iPhone 並能連接電腦來同步更新聯絡人、通話紀錄等資訊。
強大網路功能
iPhone 具備 Wi-Fi(802.11b/g)、GPRS(EDGE)、Bluetooth 2.0 等網路功能，而精細的螢幕用來瀏覽網頁則相當悅目。內建 Safari 瀏覽器，利用手指操作就可輕鬆前往全球網頁，也提供了許多 Widgets 好用的網路工具。此外，嶄新的 email 瀏覽介面，可收發 POP3, IMAP 信件，利用螢幕上的模擬鍵盤用戶更可省力的打字寫信。
Phone 也結合了 Google Maps，可在螢幕上直接瀏覽全球地圖、甚至交通狀況等。
2MP照相手機、MP3、多媒體功能
更不用提的是 iPhone 延伸了 iPod 強大的影音功能，結合音樂、影片播放能力，更內建了兩百萬像素的照相功能，滿足用戶所有影音需求。螢幕畫面也能隨用戶不同的手持方向而自動轉置。
iPhone 重要規格如下:
通信頻率: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz 四頻
LCD螢幕: 觸控式 3.5吋, 320x480, 160ppi
作業系統: OS X
儲存容量: 4GB / 8GB
傳輸能力: Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), EDGE, Bluetooth 2.0
照相功能: 2MP
電池能力: 5小時通話/影音/瀏覽網頁, 16小時音樂
外觀尺寸: 115x61x11.6mm
重量: 135g iPhone 建議售價(兩年綁約價): 8GB版本為 US$599, 4GB 版本為 US$499。美國地區預計六月份上市。 Apple 總裁 Jobs 預計在 2008 年能賣出一千萬部 iPhone，不過這個數字只佔全球手機市場約 1%而已。
超大精細 LCD螢幕
iPhone 搭載了高達 160ppi 解析度、超精細的 3.5吋螢幕，畫面像素 320x480，而觸碰直覺式的操作介面，不需要額外的鍵盤，也讓機身更加簡潔精緻。用戶可使用直式的傳統操作，或橫式的影音模式來欣賞影片。
革命性的手機操作模式
iPhone 同時也是四頻手機 850/900/1800/1900MHz (可惜沒有 3G!)，創新的電話簿、簡訊、來電顯示介面，用戶只需一指便可撥出電話。 iPhone 並能連接電腦來同步更新聯絡人、通話紀錄等資訊。
強大網路功能
iPhone 具備 Wi-Fi(802.11b/g)、GPRS(EDGE)、Bluetooth 2.0 等網路功能，而精細的螢幕用來瀏覽網頁則相當悅目。內建 Safari 瀏覽器，利用手指操作就可輕鬆前往全球網頁，也提供了許多 Widgets 好用的網路工具。此外，嶄新的 email 瀏覽介面，可收發 POP3, IMAP 信件，利用螢幕上的模擬鍵盤用戶更可省力的打字寫信。
Phone 也結合了 Google Maps，可在螢幕上直接瀏覽全球地圖、甚至交通狀況等。
2MP照相手機、MP3、多媒體功能
更不用提的是 iPhone 延伸了 iPod 強大的影音功能，結合音樂、影片播放能力，更內建了兩百萬像素的照相功能，滿足用戶所有影音需求。螢幕畫面也能隨用戶不同的手持方向而自動轉置。
iPhone 重要規格如下:
通信頻率: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz 四頻
LCD螢幕: 觸控式 3.5吋, 320x480, 160ppi
作業系統: OS X
儲存容量: 4GB / 8GB
傳輸能力: Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), EDGE, Bluetooth 2.0
照相功能: 2MP
電池能力: 5小時通話/影音/瀏覽網頁, 16小時音樂
外觀尺寸: 115x61x11.6mm
重量: 135g iPhone 建議售價(兩年綁約價): 8GB版本為 US$599, 4GB 版本為 US$499。美國地區預計六月份上市。 Apple 總裁 Jobs 預計在 2008 年能賣出一千萬部 iPhone，不過這個數字只佔全球手機市場約 1%而已。
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
WiFi Phone shown on the VoIPSupply
UTStarcom F1000G
UTStarCom F1000 G WIFI VOIP Phone WLAN 802.11B/G
$129.99
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F3000
UTstarcom F3000 WiFi VoIP Phone Clamshell with Color LCD
$209.95 $194.95
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Linksys WIP300
Linksys WIP300 - NA WIFI SIP V2.0 Phone 802.11b/g Color LCD
$299.95 $209.95
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WIP330-NA
Linksys WIP330 NA WIFI SIP Phone 802.11g + Windows CE
$349.95
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IP-5000
Hitachi-Cable Wireless IPC-5000 WiFi SIP Phone
$319.95
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Hitachi IP-3000
Hitachi Cable Wireless IP-3000 WIFI SIP Phone WIP-3000
$289.95 $274.95
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Aastra 480i-CT
Aastra 480I CT IP SIP Phone Basestation w/ Wireless Handset
$279.95 $265.99
-->
D-Link DPH-540
D-Link DPH-540 802.11b/g WIFI SIP Phone (BLACK)
$249.95
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ZyXel P2000W
ZyXEL Prestige 2000W VoIP WiFi Phone SIP Protocol IEEE 802.11b
$229.95 $199.95
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Aastra 480i-CT-Handset
Aastra 480i-CT Additional Remote Handset
$99.95 $94.95
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D-Link DPH-541
D-Link DPH-541 802.11b/g WIFI SIP Phone (SILVER)
$249.95
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NetGear SPH101
Netgear SPH101 Skype WIFI Phone
$289.95
-->
Uniden UIP1868
Uniden UIP1868 5.8GHz Digital Whole House VoIP Telephone System
$239.95
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Zyxel P-2000W
ZyXEL Prestige P-2000W VoIP WiFi Phone SIP Protocol IEEE 802.11b
$229.95 $199.95
UTStarCom F1000 G WIFI VOIP Phone WLAN 802.11B/G
$129.99
-->
F3000
UTstarcom F3000 WiFi VoIP Phone Clamshell with Color LCD
$209.95 $194.95
-->
Linksys WIP300
Linksys WIP300 - NA WIFI SIP V2.0 Phone 802.11b/g Color LCD
$299.95 $209.95
-->
WIP330-NA
Linksys WIP330 NA WIFI SIP Phone 802.11g + Windows CE
$349.95
-->
IP-5000
Hitachi-Cable Wireless IPC-5000 WiFi SIP Phone
$319.95
-->
Hitachi IP-3000
Hitachi Cable Wireless IP-3000 WIFI SIP Phone WIP-3000
$289.95 $274.95
-->
Aastra 480i-CT
Aastra 480I CT IP SIP Phone Basestation w/ Wireless Handset
$279.95 $265.99
-->
D-Link DPH-540
D-Link DPH-540 802.11b/g WIFI SIP Phone (BLACK)
$249.95
-->
ZyXel P2000W
ZyXEL Prestige 2000W VoIP WiFi Phone SIP Protocol IEEE 802.11b
$229.95 $199.95
-->
Aastra 480i-CT-Handset
Aastra 480i-CT Additional Remote Handset
$99.95 $94.95
-->
D-Link DPH-541
D-Link DPH-541 802.11b/g WIFI SIP Phone (SILVER)
$249.95
-->
NetGear SPH101
Netgear SPH101 Skype WIFI Phone
$289.95
-->
Uniden UIP1868
Uniden UIP1868 5.8GHz Digital Whole House VoIP Telephone System
$239.95
-->
Zyxel P-2000W
ZyXEL Prestige P-2000W VoIP WiFi Phone SIP Protocol IEEE 802.11b
$229.95 $199.95
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Friday, November 10, 2006
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
GLOBAL IP SOUND TECHNOLOGY WILL SUPPORT MSN AND MICROSOFT OFFICE Real-Time Collaboration SERVICES
XoIP Video/Audio over IP
GLOBAL IP SOUND TECHNOLOGY WILL SUPPORT MSN AND MICROSOFT OFFICE Real-Time Collaboration SERVICES
San Francisco, CA – July 13, 2005 –Global IP Sound (GIPS), a leading provider of embedded voice-processing solutions for the Voice over IP (VoIP) market, today announced an OEM license agreement with Microsoft for voice processing solutions. The solutions, which improve PC-to-PC voice quality, are expected to be used with MSN and Microsoft Office Real-Time Collaboration (RTC) solutions.
The MSN Service, which has more than 165 million active users each month, supports not only text instant messaging but also PC-to-PC voice and video services. MSN will use GIPS VoiceEngine, while RTC will take advantage of GIPS AEC (Acoustic Echo Cancellation) and GIPS AGC (Auto Gain Control) solutions to support those services for users that require high quality VoIP functionality.
“Microsoft’s adoption of GIPS technology for MSN and RTC is a major validation of our solutions and their ability to provide the best possible voice quality over the Internet,” said Gary P. Hermansen, President and CEO of GIPS. “There are over 200 million downloads of our software currently in market today, and the addition of Microsoft users further enforces our leadership as a provider of high quality VoIP software.”
GIPS VoiceEngine is a comprehensive, packaged VoIP solution created specifically for PC or PDA applications. It is designed to produce the best quality sound possible in Internet telephony, while simplifying the integration of speech codecs, communication with sound cards, real-time performance, RTP protocol handling and other voice-related tasks. GIPS AEC is optimized to eliminate echo caused by acoustic feedback in real-time communications in a PC environment. GIPS AEC is specifically designed for conferencing applications and hands-free environments. GIPS AGC is designed to enhance real-time two-way communications. The GIPS AGC algorithm automatically adjusts the level of an audio signal to achieve consistent and comfortable audio levels. In a VoIP environment, the audio levels are especially dependent on user audio settings, equipment type and surroundings. As a result, a quality AGC is essential in avoiding signal clipping or impractical low signal levels, especially in conferencing applications.
The value of the deal is not being disclosed.
Product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.
About Global IP Sound
Founded in 1999, Global IP Sound develops embedded voice processing technologies for real-time communications over packet networks. GIPS SoundWare™ provides better than PSTN voice quality and fidelity in end-to-end IP communications with robustness against packet loss. Global IP Sound’s world-renowned speech processing and IP telephony experts deliver these solutions to applications developers, gateway and chip manufacturers. Companies using GIPS SoundWare™ products include Nortel Networks, Skype, WebEx, Marratech, and other key players in the VoIP market. Global IP Sound is a member of the Intel® PCA Developer Network, the Motorola Design Alliance, and Texas Instruments’ third party developer network. Global IP Sound has headquarters in Stockholm and San Francisco. More information is available at www.globalipsound.com.
GLOBAL IP SOUND TECHNOLOGY WILL SUPPORT MSN AND MICROSOFT OFFICE Real-Time Collaboration SERVICES
San Francisco, CA – July 13, 2005 –Global IP Sound (GIPS), a leading provider of embedded voice-processing solutions for the Voice over IP (VoIP) market, today announced an OEM license agreement with Microsoft for voice processing solutions. The solutions, which improve PC-to-PC voice quality, are expected to be used with MSN and Microsoft Office Real-Time Collaboration (RTC) solutions.
The MSN Service, which has more than 165 million active users each month, supports not only text instant messaging but also PC-to-PC voice and video services. MSN will use GIPS VoiceEngine, while RTC will take advantage of GIPS AEC (Acoustic Echo Cancellation) and GIPS AGC (Auto Gain Control) solutions to support those services for users that require high quality VoIP functionality.
“Microsoft’s adoption of GIPS technology for MSN and RTC is a major validation of our solutions and their ability to provide the best possible voice quality over the Internet,” said Gary P. Hermansen, President and CEO of GIPS. “There are over 200 million downloads of our software currently in market today, and the addition of Microsoft users further enforces our leadership as a provider of high quality VoIP software.”
GIPS VoiceEngine is a comprehensive, packaged VoIP solution created specifically for PC or PDA applications. It is designed to produce the best quality sound possible in Internet telephony, while simplifying the integration of speech codecs, communication with sound cards, real-time performance, RTP protocol handling and other voice-related tasks. GIPS AEC is optimized to eliminate echo caused by acoustic feedback in real-time communications in a PC environment. GIPS AEC is specifically designed for conferencing applications and hands-free environments. GIPS AGC is designed to enhance real-time two-way communications. The GIPS AGC algorithm automatically adjusts the level of an audio signal to achieve consistent and comfortable audio levels. In a VoIP environment, the audio levels are especially dependent on user audio settings, equipment type and surroundings. As a result, a quality AGC is essential in avoiding signal clipping or impractical low signal levels, especially in conferencing applications.
The value of the deal is not being disclosed.
Product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.
About Global IP Sound
Founded in 1999, Global IP Sound develops embedded voice processing technologies for real-time communications over packet networks. GIPS SoundWare™ provides better than PSTN voice quality and fidelity in end-to-end IP communications with robustness against packet loss. Global IP Sound’s world-renowned speech processing and IP telephony experts deliver these solutions to applications developers, gateway and chip manufacturers. Companies using GIPS SoundWare™ products include Nortel Networks, Skype, WebEx, Marratech, and other key players in the VoIP market. Global IP Sound is a member of the Intel® PCA Developer Network, the Motorola Design Alliance, and Texas Instruments’ third party developer network. Global IP Sound has headquarters in Stockholm and San Francisco. More information is available at www.globalipsound.com.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
BT delays Project Bluephone launch
XoIP Video/Audio over IP
BT delays Project Bluephone launch
Handset manufacturers given more time to develop UMA standards
Gareth Morgan, vnunet.com 20 Jul 2004
ADVERTISEMENTBT has delayed the launch of Project Bluephone, its package to offer fixed-line and mobile communication from the same device, to give handset manufacturers time to adopt the same standards.
The telco said that it now expects to launch the Bluephone service next spring. It had been due by the end of this year.
Alcatel, Ericsson and Motorola are currently working with BT to develop the Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) standards. BT claims the postponed Bluephone launch is to allow manufacturers to adopt UMA.
"This approach has ultimately resulted in the delay of a few months in our Project Bluephone launch but we firmly believe this is in the interests of our customers," said Steven Evans, chief executive of BT Mobile, in a statement.
Bluephone handsets use a Bluetooth wireless access point, either at home or in the office, and from there connect onto the fixed-line network.
If they move out of coverage range, they switch to Vodafone's GSM or 3G network.
BT delays Project Bluephone launch
Handset manufacturers given more time to develop UMA standards
Gareth Morgan, vnunet.com 20 Jul 2004
ADVERTISEMENTBT has delayed the launch of Project Bluephone, its package to offer fixed-line and mobile communication from the same device, to give handset manufacturers time to adopt the same standards.
The telco said that it now expects to launch the Bluephone service next spring. It had been due by the end of this year.
Alcatel, Ericsson and Motorola are currently working with BT to develop the Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) standards. BT claims the postponed Bluephone launch is to allow manufacturers to adopt UMA.
"This approach has ultimately resulted in the delay of a few months in our Project Bluephone launch but we firmly believe this is in the interests of our customers," said Steven Evans, chief executive of BT Mobile, in a statement.
Bluephone handsets use a Bluetooth wireless access point, either at home or in the office, and from there connect onto the fixed-line network.
If they move out of coverage range, they switch to Vodafone's GSM or 3G network.
BT promises Wi-Fi/GSM phone for Christmas Handy gift for the geek that has everything
XoIP Video/Audio over IP
BT promises Wi-Fi/GSM phone for Christmas Handy gift for the geek that has everything
Iain Thomson, vnunet.com 20 Apr 2005
ADVERTISEMENTBT has confirmed that it will have a combined Wi-Fi/GSM phone on the market by Christmas.
Speaking to vnunet.com at the Wireless LAN Event in London, BT's chief executive for wireless broadband, Chris Clark, confirmed the telco's plans to ship a hybrid handset this year.
"We'll have a seamless roaming GSM/Wi-Fi phone by the end of the year," he said.
"In five years' time they'll be very common, though not ubiquitous. Clutter from other Wi-Fi devices may slow growth, although I believe there's a technical fix for that."
Clark also committed BT to launching its Bluephone Project by the end of this spring, although he pointed out that, under the British calendar, spring does not officially end until June.
Bluephone is a handset that can connect to a traditional fixed line via Bluetooth, but switch to the GSM network when out of range of the house.
"Switching networks for mobile devices is key," said Andrew Allison, head of Intel's mobility group in the UK.
"But there are a lot of steps on the way to getting software-controlled radio like this. It's not just a question of sticking everything onto the chip and sticking it in a phone."
BT promises Wi-Fi/GSM phone for Christmas Handy gift for the geek that has everything
Iain Thomson, vnunet.com 20 Apr 2005
ADVERTISEMENTBT has confirmed that it will have a combined Wi-Fi/GSM phone on the market by Christmas.
Speaking to vnunet.com at the Wireless LAN Event in London, BT's chief executive for wireless broadband, Chris Clark, confirmed the telco's plans to ship a hybrid handset this year.
"We'll have a seamless roaming GSM/Wi-Fi phone by the end of the year," he said.
"In five years' time they'll be very common, though not ubiquitous. Clutter from other Wi-Fi devices may slow growth, although I believe there's a technical fix for that."
Clark also committed BT to launching its Bluephone Project by the end of this spring, although he pointed out that, under the British calendar, spring does not officially end until June.
Bluephone is a handset that can connect to a traditional fixed line via Bluetooth, but switch to the GSM network when out of range of the house.
"Switching networks for mobile devices is key," said Andrew Allison, head of Intel's mobility group in the UK.
"But there are a lot of steps on the way to getting software-controlled radio like this. It's not just a question of sticking everything onto the chip and sticking it in a phone."
Monday, June 06, 2005
IP Phone代工商機湧現 台廠積極卡位
XoIP Video/Audio over IP
IP Phone代工商機湧現 台廠積極卡位
代工接單戰況激烈 電信設備廠與網通設備廠紛爭食大餅
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（記者楊曉芳／台北） 2005/06/07
VoIP市場已在2005年迅速崛起，尤其是美國於2005年3月完成VoIP法令訂定，讓使用環境漸趨完備，同時亦造就美國企業用戶市場迅速成長，由於美國企業用戶主流設備多以IP Phone為主，因此亦推動IP Phone需求大增，惟國際大廠所釋出的IP Phone要求規格愈來愈高，並以整合型IP Phone為主，因此讓不少傳統電信設備廠與網通設備廠因皆只具備其中部分技術，讓代工接單戰況激烈，加上同業廠商儘量避而不談，讓代工接單更見神秘色彩。
智邦（2345）行銷副總陳嘉修表示，這場戰役應是網通廠較有機會，因為整合型產品功能，除了語音及視訊是傳統電信設備廠已具備的技術之外，路由器、Wireless及數據機皆是網通廠的專項，尤其是美國企業市場更重視安全品質，這是目前網通廠整合能力略高於傳統電信設備廠的重要關鍵。
陳嘉修指出，就過去單純的視訊IP Phone來看，或許在價格上，網通廠難以跟傳統電信設備廠相較，但在強調整合性功能之後，網通廠現在的機會已擴大許多。在市場需求驅動下，智邦已具備結合Wi-Fi、Video功能的IP Phone，並預計最快在第四季可開始接單出貨。然是否已接獲國際大廠代工訂單，陳嘉修則是絕口不提。
國際大廠思科（Cisco）、3Com、阿爾卡特（Alcatel）、Avaya及北電（Nortel）皆是台灣IP Phone代工廠極欲爭取的訂單，但目前為止，僅確定思科及北電的IP Phone交由台灣代工，而Avaya僅提出有意釋單給台灣的訊息，卻未定案，3Com則以由大陸代工，台灣研發為發展方向，阿爾卡特只在歐洲及墨西哥生產。
在IP Phone走向整合之路後，由於台灣為全球第一大網通設備代工點，因此增加未來代工IP Phone的商機，惟目前國際大廠欲整合產品的功能多不願曝光，加上台灣傳統電信設備廠亦欲爭食代工商機，讓IP Phone代工成為同業廠商只談技術不談接單的禁忌。
IP Phone代工商機湧現 台廠積極卡位
代工接單戰況激烈 電信設備廠與網通設備廠紛爭食大餅
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
（記者楊曉芳／台北） 2005/06/07
VoIP市場已在2005年迅速崛起，尤其是美國於2005年3月完成VoIP法令訂定，讓使用環境漸趨完備，同時亦造就美國企業用戶市場迅速成長，由於美國企業用戶主流設備多以IP Phone為主，因此亦推動IP Phone需求大增，惟國際大廠所釋出的IP Phone要求規格愈來愈高，並以整合型IP Phone為主，因此讓不少傳統電信設備廠與網通設備廠因皆只具備其中部分技術，讓代工接單戰況激烈，加上同業廠商儘量避而不談，讓代工接單更見神秘色彩。
智邦（2345）行銷副總陳嘉修表示，這場戰役應是網通廠較有機會，因為整合型產品功能，除了語音及視訊是傳統電信設備廠已具備的技術之外，路由器、Wireless及數據機皆是網通廠的專項，尤其是美國企業市場更重視安全品質，這是目前網通廠整合能力略高於傳統電信設備廠的重要關鍵。
陳嘉修指出，就過去單純的視訊IP Phone來看，或許在價格上，網通廠難以跟傳統電信設備廠相較，但在強調整合性功能之後，網通廠現在的機會已擴大許多。在市場需求驅動下，智邦已具備結合Wi-Fi、Video功能的IP Phone，並預計最快在第四季可開始接單出貨。然是否已接獲國際大廠代工訂單，陳嘉修則是絕口不提。
國際大廠思科（Cisco）、3Com、阿爾卡特（Alcatel）、Avaya及北電（Nortel）皆是台灣IP Phone代工廠極欲爭取的訂單，但目前為止，僅確定思科及北電的IP Phone交由台灣代工，而Avaya僅提出有意釋單給台灣的訊息，卻未定案，3Com則以由大陸代工，台灣研發為發展方向，阿爾卡特只在歐洲及墨西哥生產。
在IP Phone走向整合之路後，由於台灣為全球第一大網通設備代工點，因此增加未來代工IP Phone的商機，惟目前國際大廠欲整合產品的功能多不願曝光，加上台灣傳統電信設備廠亦欲爭食代工商機，讓IP Phone代工成為同業廠商只談技術不談接單的禁忌。
Sunday, June 05, 2005
SBC Communications' move to slash prices on its DSL service could spur a pricing war between phone companies and their rivals in the cable industry
XoIP Video/Audio over IP
SBC ups the ante in broadband war
By Marguerite Reardon
http://news.com.com/SBC+ups+the+ante+in+broadband+war/2100-1034_3-5728629.html
Story last modified Thu Jun 02 04:00:00 PDT 2005
SBC Communications' move to slash prices on its DSL service could spur a pricing war between phone companies and their rivals in the cable industry, say analysts. But cable companies say they're competing on value rather than price.
SBC, the second-largest phone company in the United States, announced Wednesday that it will reduce the price of its DSL service for new subscribers to $14.95. This is the deepest discount that a phone company has given for broadband services, well below the $23.90 that America Online charges for unlimited dial-up Internet access.
Analysts predict that the sharp price cut will put pressure on cable operators such as Comcast, Time Warner and Cox Communications to slash prices on their services as well.
"SBC has taken things to the point where the price differential is really stark between DSL and cable modem service."
--Jim Penhune, analyst, Strategies Analytics"SBC has taken things to the point where the price differential is really stark between DSL and cable modem service," said Jim Penhune, an analyst with Strategies Analytics. "At this point, with DSL almost half the price of cable services, I think the cable companies don't have much left in their argument for speed over price."
The cable companies say they have no plans to drop prices to compete with SBC. "Our take on competition for broadband is to offer more value to our customers," said Jeanne Russo, a spokeswoman for Comcast, which competes with SBC in several states, including parts of Texas and California.
But analysts caution that the writing is already on the wall, and that cable operators will have to do something.
"I'm sure they will wait to see what the subscriber numbers look like for the next quarter or two before they react," said Penhune. "It will likely start at the local level, where cable operators may reduce prices or offer promotions to compete."
The power of price
SBC and other phone companies have always used price cuts as a way to compete against the cable companies, which got a head start in the market in the mid-1990s. Since that time, the phone companies have been playing catch-up to their cable rivals, which still dominate the broadband market with roughly 59 percent of all subscribers.
Competition between the two sets of companies is heating up even more now as cable companies including Cox and Time Warner also start offering telephone service along with television and high-speed Internet service.
Making matters worse for the phone companies is the fact that their traditional telephone businesses have been in steep decline for the past several years as more and more customers cancel local phone service and instead use cell phones or new Internet-based phone services such as Vonage.
SBC's strategy is simple: The company wants to sign up as many new subscribers as possible. In order to fight back, the phone companies have been steadily lowering prices and offering customers different tiers of service at reduced prices. Verizon recently increased speeds and kept its price of $29.95.
So far, the pricing strategy has helped phone companies gain some market share. In 2004, DSL had about 41 percent of the market, up from 39 percent the year before. Experts attribute most of the recent jump in DSL subscriptions to the phone companies' more aggressive pricing strategies. This trend is expected to continue with cable and DSL splitting the market evenly in the next three to four years.
SBC's strategy is simple: The company wants to sign up as many new subscribers as possible. The idea is that the more DSL subscribers it has, the easier it will be to sell them other services such as telephony and, eventually, television. SBC is already in the process of upgrading its network to carry television service over its existing DSL lines.
While Project Lightspeed, which will extend fiber deeper into the network to support higher bandwidth for Internet-routed TV, is SBC's answer to the cable company's "triple play" service offering, the reality is that SBC's service won't be ready for more than a year. What's more, rollout of the television service could take even longer since SBC could be required to go city to city to negotiate franchise agreements.
"It's not in our plan right now to lower our rates, but we allow each market to do whatever it needs to do to react to changing market conditions."
--Bobby Amirshahi, spokesman, Cox CommunicationsSBC and Verizon Communications, which also has plans to offer television services over a new network it's building, suffered a serious blow over the weekend in Texas, when the legislature failed to act on a bill that would have allowed new entrants to the television market to get a statewide franchise. Similar laws are being considered in other states.
As SBC stares this reality in the face, signing up subscribers no matter what seems to be a top priority.
"It's all about driving DSL growth," said Wes Warnock, a spokesman for SBC. "Broadband is a sticky product, and it helps us compete against the cable companies. It also offsets the access line loss, so it's strategically significant."
Reading the fine print
While the list price for SBC's new service is far below that of competitors' offerings, it is not without conditions. First, the $14.95 price is a promotion, and it's good for only one year. After that, subscribers pay whatever regular rate SBC is charging at the time.
Customers must also agree to a one-year contract for the service. If they decide to terminate the service before the contract expires, there's a $200 cancellation fee. And finally, the $14.95 rate is only available for customers who also subscribe to SBC telephone service, which most can get for about $20 a month.
Some cable competitors argue that customers get a better value from their services. For example, Time Warner is offering a promotional rate for its high-speed service--$29.99 a month for the first six months. Once the promotion period ends, the price jumps to $39.95.
Unlike SBC, which requires subscribers to also get a phone line, Time Warner customers can sign up for high-speed access without subscribing to any other cable service. What's more, the Time Warner service offers connection rates of 5mbps, whereas the $14.95 offer from SBC provides only up to 1.5mbps.
Cox offers a 256kbps broadband connection for $24.95 a month. The service is not a promotion and is offered throughout its service region. It also doesn't require subscribers to sign up for any other Cox services and it doesn't require a contract.
But if push comes to shove in a particular market, the company could respond on a local level, said Bobby Amirshahi, a spokesman for Cox.
"It's not in our plan right now to lower our rates," he said. "But we allow each market to do whatever it needs to do to react to changing market conditions."
As for the other Baby Bells, which do not compete head-to-head against SBC for DSL customers, Verizon and BellSouth both say they have no immediate plans to lower pricing on their DSL service.
Copyright ©1995-2005 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.
SBC ups the ante in broadband war
By Marguerite Reardon
http://news.com.com/SBC+ups+the+ante+in+broadband+war/2100-1034_3-5728629.html
Story last modified Thu Jun 02 04:00:00 PDT 2005
SBC Communications' move to slash prices on its DSL service could spur a pricing war between phone companies and their rivals in the cable industry, say analysts. But cable companies say they're competing on value rather than price.
SBC, the second-largest phone company in the United States, announced Wednesday that it will reduce the price of its DSL service for new subscribers to $14.95. This is the deepest discount that a phone company has given for broadband services, well below the $23.90 that America Online charges for unlimited dial-up Internet access.
Analysts predict that the sharp price cut will put pressure on cable operators such as Comcast, Time Warner and Cox Communications to slash prices on their services as well.
"SBC has taken things to the point where the price differential is really stark between DSL and cable modem service."
--Jim Penhune, analyst, Strategies Analytics"SBC has taken things to the point where the price differential is really stark between DSL and cable modem service," said Jim Penhune, an analyst with Strategies Analytics. "At this point, with DSL almost half the price of cable services, I think the cable companies don't have much left in their argument for speed over price."
The cable companies say they have no plans to drop prices to compete with SBC. "Our take on competition for broadband is to offer more value to our customers," said Jeanne Russo, a spokeswoman for Comcast, which competes with SBC in several states, including parts of Texas and California.
But analysts caution that the writing is already on the wall, and that cable operators will have to do something.
"I'm sure they will wait to see what the subscriber numbers look like for the next quarter or two before they react," said Penhune. "It will likely start at the local level, where cable operators may reduce prices or offer promotions to compete."
The power of price
SBC and other phone companies have always used price cuts as a way to compete against the cable companies, which got a head start in the market in the mid-1990s. Since that time, the phone companies have been playing catch-up to their cable rivals, which still dominate the broadband market with roughly 59 percent of all subscribers.
Competition between the two sets of companies is heating up even more now as cable companies including Cox and Time Warner also start offering telephone service along with television and high-speed Internet service.
Making matters worse for the phone companies is the fact that their traditional telephone businesses have been in steep decline for the past several years as more and more customers cancel local phone service and instead use cell phones or new Internet-based phone services such as Vonage.
SBC's strategy is simple: The company wants to sign up as many new subscribers as possible. In order to fight back, the phone companies have been steadily lowering prices and offering customers different tiers of service at reduced prices. Verizon recently increased speeds and kept its price of $29.95.
So far, the pricing strategy has helped phone companies gain some market share. In 2004, DSL had about 41 percent of the market, up from 39 percent the year before. Experts attribute most of the recent jump in DSL subscriptions to the phone companies' more aggressive pricing strategies. This trend is expected to continue with cable and DSL splitting the market evenly in the next three to four years.
SBC's strategy is simple: The company wants to sign up as many new subscribers as possible. The idea is that the more DSL subscribers it has, the easier it will be to sell them other services such as telephony and, eventually, television. SBC is already in the process of upgrading its network to carry television service over its existing DSL lines.
While Project Lightspeed, which will extend fiber deeper into the network to support higher bandwidth for Internet-routed TV, is SBC's answer to the cable company's "triple play" service offering, the reality is that SBC's service won't be ready for more than a year. What's more, rollout of the television service could take even longer since SBC could be required to go city to city to negotiate franchise agreements.
"It's not in our plan right now to lower our rates, but we allow each market to do whatever it needs to do to react to changing market conditions."
--Bobby Amirshahi, spokesman, Cox CommunicationsSBC and Verizon Communications, which also has plans to offer television services over a new network it's building, suffered a serious blow over the weekend in Texas, when the legislature failed to act on a bill that would have allowed new entrants to the television market to get a statewide franchise. Similar laws are being considered in other states.
As SBC stares this reality in the face, signing up subscribers no matter what seems to be a top priority.
"It's all about driving DSL growth," said Wes Warnock, a spokesman for SBC. "Broadband is a sticky product, and it helps us compete against the cable companies. It also offsets the access line loss, so it's strategically significant."
Reading the fine print
While the list price for SBC's new service is far below that of competitors' offerings, it is not without conditions. First, the $14.95 price is a promotion, and it's good for only one year. After that, subscribers pay whatever regular rate SBC is charging at the time.
Customers must also agree to a one-year contract for the service. If they decide to terminate the service before the contract expires, there's a $200 cancellation fee. And finally, the $14.95 rate is only available for customers who also subscribe to SBC telephone service, which most can get for about $20 a month.
Some cable competitors argue that customers get a better value from their services. For example, Time Warner is offering a promotional rate for its high-speed service--$29.99 a month for the first six months. Once the promotion period ends, the price jumps to $39.95.
Unlike SBC, which requires subscribers to also get a phone line, Time Warner customers can sign up for high-speed access without subscribing to any other cable service. What's more, the Time Warner service offers connection rates of 5mbps, whereas the $14.95 offer from SBC provides only up to 1.5mbps.
Cox offers a 256kbps broadband connection for $24.95 a month. The service is not a promotion and is offered throughout its service region. It also doesn't require subscribers to sign up for any other Cox services and it doesn't require a contract.
But if push comes to shove in a particular market, the company could respond on a local level, said Bobby Amirshahi, a spokesman for Cox.
"It's not in our plan right now to lower our rates," he said. "But we allow each market to do whatever it needs to do to react to changing market conditions."
As for the other Baby Bells, which do not compete head-to-head against SBC for DSL customers, Verizon and BellSouth both say they have no immediate plans to lower pricing on their DSL service.
Copyright ©1995-2005 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.
Monday, May 30, 2005
GSM結合VoIP 包山包海行動新趨勢
GSM結合VoIP 包山包海行動新趨勢
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
（記者李孟哲／台北） 2005/05/31
GSM行動電話的市場競爭早已是戰況慘烈，目前僅有少數廠商能結合各種新式無線傳輸技術，並加入特殊功能設計，並實際應用在先期以商務人士為主的層面上。頡泰科技（G-Tek）即將在COMPUTEX 2005展出結合了WiFi、Bluetooth與VoIP於一機的PWG-500全功能型手機，並且在GSM規格上符合了「普世應用原則」，除了眾所周知的900／1800／1900之外，目前大部分在南美洲採用的GSM 850也一併納入，儼然成為商務應用上的好幫手。
PWG-500支援雙SIM卡，WiFi符合802.11b規格，實際應用尚可允許GSM與WiFi並用，並可多人同時通話；以1個1,300mAH鋰電池可以供應4小時通話時間以及長達72小時待機時間；USB連接埠也方便透過管理工具在電腦上記錄各種設定或編輯電話簿。據廠商透露，目前該機型在技術上已相當成熟，並且取得專利權，將全力拓展歐洲市場，並且投入下一代新機種的研發。（Booth NO. Hall 3，G356）
圖說：頡泰科技最新全功能PWG-500。
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
（記者李孟哲／台北） 2005/05/31
GSM行動電話的市場競爭早已是戰況慘烈，目前僅有少數廠商能結合各種新式無線傳輸技術，並加入特殊功能設計，並實際應用在先期以商務人士為主的層面上。頡泰科技（G-Tek）即將在COMPUTEX 2005展出結合了WiFi、Bluetooth與VoIP於一機的PWG-500全功能型手機，並且在GSM規格上符合了「普世應用原則」，除了眾所周知的900／1800／1900之外，目前大部分在南美洲採用的GSM 850也一併納入，儼然成為商務應用上的好幫手。
PWG-500支援雙SIM卡，WiFi符合802.11b規格，實際應用尚可允許GSM與WiFi並用，並可多人同時通話；以1個1,300mAH鋰電池可以供應4小時通話時間以及長達72小時待機時間；USB連接埠也方便透過管理工具在電腦上記錄各種設定或編輯電話簿。據廠商透露，目前該機型在技術上已相當成熟，並且取得專利權，將全力拓展歐洲市場，並且投入下一代新機種的研發。（Booth NO. Hall 3，G356）
圖說：頡泰科技最新全功能PWG-500。
VoIP實在夠Hot！ 市場大餅人人都有機會 中小型廠專攻網路電話週邊硬體 大廠搶攻IP PBX、閘道器市場
VoIP實在夠Hot！ 市場大餅人人都有機會
中小型廠專攻網路電話週邊硬體 大廠搶攻IP PBX、閘道器市場
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
（記者陳慧玲／台北） 2005/05/31
VoIP，無疑是2005年所有網通廠口中最熱門的重點話題，但是相較於前2次快速興起，又快速墜落的VoIP熱潮，此次的VoIP創造帶動的商機，卻不再只是電信業者、或是提供電信級設備的廠商才能吃到的市場大餅，VoIP應用概念的成熟，P2P網路電話軟體勢力的快速興起、VoIP電信服務業者的動作轉趨積極，都讓此次的VoIP熱潮力道不同於前2次，而能吃到市場大餅的設備廠商，也不再只是提供給電信級客戶的設備大廠，多元應用的用戶端設備，也讓中小型硬體設備廠商們，在此次的VoIP浪潮中有了新的機會。
以SIP標準技術發展P2P網路電話軟體的TelTel就十分看好台灣廠商在相關用戶端VoIP硬體產品上的發展潛力，因此規劃將以台灣為發展重要據點，結合台灣廠商的資源，透過TelTel的平台發展VoIP週邊硬體產品。TelTel就認為，此類結合網路電話軟體平台所帶動的VoIP硬體商機，對於許多營收規模甚大的網通設備廠而言，可能沒有太大的幫助，但這絕對是可以切入VoIP使用者市場的機會；而對於中小型網通設備廠而言，卻是一個很好的利基型市場機會，藉由使用者對於相關VoIP週邊硬體產品的需求，將可順勢切入市場，進而獲得顯著營收貢獻挹注。
而此類透過網路電話軟體平台的VoIP使用者端硬體產品，普遍都屬於價格不高、使用方便的入門型產品，最常見的就是連接電腦而可以用來通話的USB電話機。但除了USB電話機以外，已有多家廠商看好此部分外接電話機的市場，紛紛應用Wi-Fi、藍芽（Bluetooth）、甚或是傳統家用無線電話技術的DECT，來生產此類產品，更有腦筋動得快的廠商，推出傳統藍芽耳機配藍芽發射器（Dongle）的組合，以標榜讓使用者更方便透過Skype通話為號召，也想來搶佔市場分一杯羹。
除了此類貼近用戶端的VoIP硬體產品外，台灣網通廠在其原本專長的閘道器端，也都紛紛加強VoIP應用所需的安全、穩定、品質功能，例如防火牆、QoS等等，而幾乎大部分2005年新推出的寬頻路由器上，都一定會有VoIP埠，相較2004年的產品規格，VoIP埠在2005年幾乎已成為台灣廠商此類寬頻路由器的必備功能。
至於在IP PBX或是Soft Switch產品上，大部分仍是以過去自CTI時期開始投入的廠商為主，但值得注意的是，對於擁有同樣SMB（Small& Medium Business）或較大規模的SME（Small & Medium Enterprise）通路的網通廠來看，也想要搶進專攻中小企業的IP PBX。其中，智邦（2345）旗下的Edge-Core品牌就推出其自有IP PBX與IP 電話的解決方案。
中小型廠專攻網路電話週邊硬體 大廠搶攻IP PBX、閘道器市場
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（記者陳慧玲／台北） 2005/05/31
VoIP，無疑是2005年所有網通廠口中最熱門的重點話題，但是相較於前2次快速興起，又快速墜落的VoIP熱潮，此次的VoIP創造帶動的商機，卻不再只是電信業者、或是提供電信級設備的廠商才能吃到的市場大餅，VoIP應用概念的成熟，P2P網路電話軟體勢力的快速興起、VoIP電信服務業者的動作轉趨積極，都讓此次的VoIP熱潮力道不同於前2次，而能吃到市場大餅的設備廠商，也不再只是提供給電信級客戶的設備大廠，多元應用的用戶端設備，也讓中小型硬體設備廠商們，在此次的VoIP浪潮中有了新的機會。
以SIP標準技術發展P2P網路電話軟體的TelTel就十分看好台灣廠商在相關用戶端VoIP硬體產品上的發展潛力，因此規劃將以台灣為發展重要據點，結合台灣廠商的資源，透過TelTel的平台發展VoIP週邊硬體產品。TelTel就認為，此類結合網路電話軟體平台所帶動的VoIP硬體商機，對於許多營收規模甚大的網通設備廠而言，可能沒有太大的幫助，但這絕對是可以切入VoIP使用者市場的機會；而對於中小型網通設備廠而言，卻是一個很好的利基型市場機會，藉由使用者對於相關VoIP週邊硬體產品的需求，將可順勢切入市場，進而獲得顯著營收貢獻挹注。
而此類透過網路電話軟體平台的VoIP使用者端硬體產品，普遍都屬於價格不高、使用方便的入門型產品，最常見的就是連接電腦而可以用來通話的USB電話機。但除了USB電話機以外，已有多家廠商看好此部分外接電話機的市場，紛紛應用Wi-Fi、藍芽（Bluetooth）、甚或是傳統家用無線電話技術的DECT，來生產此類產品，更有腦筋動得快的廠商，推出傳統藍芽耳機配藍芽發射器（Dongle）的組合，以標榜讓使用者更方便透過Skype通話為號召，也想來搶佔市場分一杯羹。
除了此類貼近用戶端的VoIP硬體產品外，台灣網通廠在其原本專長的閘道器端，也都紛紛加強VoIP應用所需的安全、穩定、品質功能，例如防火牆、QoS等等，而幾乎大部分2005年新推出的寬頻路由器上，都一定會有VoIP埠，相較2004年的產品規格，VoIP埠在2005年幾乎已成為台灣廠商此類寬頻路由器的必備功能。
至於在IP PBX或是Soft Switch產品上，大部分仍是以過去自CTI時期開始投入的廠商為主，但值得注意的是，對於擁有同樣SMB（Small& Medium Business）或較大規模的SME（Small & Medium Enterprise）通路的網通廠來看，也想要搶進專攻中小企業的IP PBX。其中，智邦（2345）旗下的Edge-Core品牌就推出其自有IP PBX與IP 電話的解決方案。
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