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So you want VoIP in you Call Center

VoIP in the Call Center. Could be a great way to make some cost cutting pay off while increasing customer relations. IT sounds like a great idea, simple, cost effective, and will link all your employees in a snap. Plus, adding to the Call Center you get all the features you love. Call recording, routing, voice mail, and chat are simple plug-n-play.

Hold on one minute. Have you thought of everything? Take a look at this excellent article titled: "6 Things to Consider Before You Add VoIP to Your Company's Call Center". A really nice article that will get you thinking from bottom up. Most won't think of scalability, bandwidth requirements, architecture, and security to name a few. This article give a great jumping off place without diving into deep water.
See full article.

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What are the best VoIP services

If you are like most, you are probably slightly confused about the services available for VoIP. Should you use Skype, Live Messenger, Freshtel, Pennytel, iiNet, TPG, etc. Should you be using ISP-based or SIP protocol. There are many factors that go into your decision making.

For me, I tried Skype, fell in love with it, had headaches through the growth periods, but the service just does what I need. I think that is the most important aspect to picking any service...KNOWING what you need. To help you weed through the VoIP services available, check out Saving money with VoIP: a guide to the best services See full article.

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Help for getting starting with VOIP.

Not everyone is 100 percent VOIP aware. I came across two articles this week that might help the VOIP newbie. And if you think you know enough already, you just might want to browse them for a quick refresher on current trends.

The first article: Guide to internet phone calls will help you understand how much money you might be able to save with a VOIP phone plan, how to get started, and presents some of the pitfalls.

The second article: Benefits of Hosted VoIP Business Service will take you through some questions to help you choose your VOIP vendor. See full article.

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Taking a Vacation From The VoIP Weblog

I will be taking a break from my various blogs for the next week and a half-including this one. I will be on vacation with my family, visiting friends and enjoying my time away from the usual day-to-day of my life. VoIP will be the farthest thing from my mind.

Unless one of the other roaming bloggers posts something while I'm away, expect The VoIP Weblog to be silent until I return. See full article.

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8x8 Gets No Respect-But Deserves It

Back in the early days of my industry experience, 8x8 was a company I was familiar with only insofar as I knew they had a Check Point firewall and I worked for the company that provided support for them. Nowadays, I know them as a VoIP company, both in terms of providing service through their residential Packet 8 service, many of their business offerings, and of course their patent portfolio, which totals 73.

Carolyn Schuk does an excellent piece on her VoIP Princess blog about 8x8, their history, and how they compare to the competition. What I did not know was that they started a residential VoIP offering well before Vonage did-back in 2002!

While 8x8 still maintains the Packet 8 service, they make more money on less price-sensitive business customers. Their product portfolio is quite impressive. Unlike Vonage, they are profitable, yet somehow their stock price is lower than Vonage's. Go figure. See full article.

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Fring Adds J2ME, Nokia Internet Tablets

Fring keeps on adding more handsets so you can IM and make VoIP calls from not only mobile phone handsets, but from the Nokia N810 as well! This screenshot was taken from the N810.

The J2ME client doesn't do VoIP, but it still allows you to IM on the various networks it supports, including Skype! In fact, the feature set for all the different versions varies, which is why they provide this handy, dandy chart that shows you what features are supported on which versions.

One other notable feature is that Fring will allow you to make PSTN calls using your Skype Out minutes. I made a test call from my Nokia N810 and it sounded pretty good.

Crossposted from The VoIP Weblog See full article.

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Bigger Things Going on with Numbr

My post on GigaOM on Voice APIs brought out some interesting companies to my attention, both in the comments and privately in email. One such company is Numbr, which I knew about already and covered here before.

The original Numbr service is now called iNumbr, and is still generating traffic. Like many "free" services, it serves as a demonstration of the technology they can deliver to others. They have come up with their own API (called teleAPI) and are working with companies to utilize Numbr's infrastructure in a variety of ways.

One thing I love about this particular company-and why I think they will be ultimately be successful-is that they are doing this without venture capitalist money. It's been bootstrapped with the founders own money and now operates profitably. They can take their time and build their business for the long haul as there is no external pressure for a large, quick return on investment. See full article.

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Push-to-Talk; Tied to Carrier or Tied to Application?

I have never been a huge fan of push-to-talk services. It doesn't speak to me, to be quite honest. However, a lot of people like the Nextel Direct Connect service-something Sprint hasn't been able to duplicate since acquiring Nextel.

Apparently, Sprint has announced Push to Talk in another 14 markets, increasing the count of markets where their service is available to 46. Meanwhile, the folks at Palringo point out the absurdity of this. Their push-to-talk software is carrier-agnostic. If you've got a Windows PC, a Mac running Leopard, Windows Mobile handset or Symbian S60 3rd Edition FP1 or FP2 handset, you can run the Palringo client.

Palringo gives you more than push-to-talk, you can also IM with folks on the networks pictured here. All for free. Well, except for the data charges, of course.

If you're going to do push-to-talk, carrier-agnostic is the way to go. Unfortunately, this solution isn't handset agnostic, but then again, very little is. See full article.

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Jajah Now Offering Hosted PBX

I have to admit, I'm actually a bit confused by the Jajah's plan to provide services to small and medium businesses (SMBs) using their new SMB Solution Suite. The press release I got in email suggested it was a PBX, but I am having a hard time calling it that. How does this solution look to everyone involved? How do calls come in? How do I make my calls via Jajah when I can use my existing phone?

While I have a vague idea of what this would look like based on following Jajah for a couple of years, most normal people arent going to get it. See full article.

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VoIP Supply To Supply Bandwidth, Too

In what is a move away from just selling hardware and being able to provide a complete solution, VoIP Supply has partnered with bandwidth.com in order to be able to provide business with everything they need for VoIP. Often times, that includes providing Internet bandwidth and a VoIP provider-both of which bandwidth.com provides.

It opens up the market for VoIP Supply to be able to offer the whole package to customers, that's for sure. Not everyone knows the pieces they needed, nor can they necessarily assemble them. Having one place to go to get it all will be good for customers. See full article.

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Why Dell Partnered With SightSpeed

SightSpeed CEO Peter Csathy really didn't have to respond to the various speculation about why Dell chose SightSpeed as their partner for their video calling service. It was more of a surprise to me that Dell was considering doing video calling than that they chose SightSpeed to deliver that service.

Really, it boils down to one key fact: SightSpeed delivered what Dell. Because SightSpeed has worked with partners in Dell's league before, and more importantly, they listened to what Dell wanted, they were able to deliver. Would Skype been as flexible as the folks from SightSpeed? I doubt it. See full article.

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Voice APIs Not Your Road To Riches

Many companies are now offering voice APIs for their telephony infrastructure, making it possible to create so-called voice mashups. One of the first was Jaduka, another that has gotten a lot of press is Ribbit.

APIs are necessary to create voice mashups. They allow you to treat voice and data interchangeably, building applications like an erector set. Twitterfone and Fonolo are great examples of voice mashups.

Is there money in this? I don't believe so. Read the piece I wrote for GigaOM: Is There Money in Voice APIs? See full article.

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MyGlobalTalk: Where's The Difference?

I think the PR folks have added me to their email lists, as I seem to be getting a lot more emails lately. Like this one from i2Telecom, which is now offering MyGlobalTalk™, which places Internet telephony in the hands of every cellular phone user, independent of wireless carrier, handset manufacturer, or the type of wireless carrier voice/data plan involved.

If you have one of the supported smart phones, it's an application install that, presumably, reroutes calls through their voip gateway. Have a dumb phone? Then call the gateway yourself and save some money.

Bah. It's the same old thing, using the same old tricks. Please. See full article.

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BroadSoft Wants Your Voice Apps!

BroadSoft is running a contest to try and get you to write a voice mashup. Started on 8 July 2008, and running through 2 September 2008, the Xtended Voice Mashup Contest is about getting Web 2.0 and telecom developers to integrate BroadWorks VoIP features with other applications using the Xtended Services Interface (Xsi) RESTful API.

The developers who make the best apps will win cash money, but the real question is: what will they build? Will they solve a real problem or reinvent something that's been reinvented already? Will these apps-beyond the three prize winners-turn into real dollars?
See full article.

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Truphone on the iPhone

I figured the folks at Truphone would be first with a VoIP over WiFi calling app available through the App Store. Sure enough, they are, or at least among them!

I don't have an iPhone-first or second edition, so I can't really comment on how well this application works or doesn't. It's a nice idea whose time has come, no doubt! Meanwhile, if I need to use Truphone, I've got plenty of Nokia's to install it on! See full article.

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Alltop VoIP Coverage

An interesting aggregator site called Alltop recently launched, which lists a number of high-quality VoIP sites along with their headlines. It's designed for people that do not use RSS feeds, which is still the majority of web surfers.

While my personal technology blog is among the blogs listed, The VoIP Weblog is not one of them-yet. I did suggest it to them and hope to see it among the aggregated blogs as well. See full article.

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Who Will Have The First VoIP Over WiFi Application on iPhone 3G?

As the day for the Apple iPhone 3G approaches, I have one question: who will introduce the first voice over WiFi application for the iPhone? Now I know people have done this before to varying degrees, to me what matters is who gets their app in the store first.

No disrespect to my friends at Jajah and RingFree, of course. They do VoIP, and have an "app" for the iPhone, but it's a web page, not an app that you can get through the app store. The calls go over the GSM network.

Why is this "native" VoIP important? For those of us who live where the GSM network is cheap, it may not be such a big draw. When you're roaming, different story entirely. Making a call over WiFi may be less convenient, but it's likely a hell of a lot cheaper than paying roaming charges with your carrier.

My guess is that Truphone will bring their wonderful Nokia application to the Apple iPhone first before others. That's only a guess. What do you think? See full article.

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Initial Impressions on Phone Fusion

I am getting busier, or at least have less desire to muck about with new services these days. When I do take the time to try something new, it had better work right the first time without an excessive amount of manual reading.

Phone Fusion is a service I was turned onto by a PR agency. It promises to be better than GrandCentral in many ways, but my initial experience is a bit rougher than GrandCentral. Some of that can be attributed to a rework that is currently underway, but others are things that I feel they should have gotten right out of the gate.

For example, voicemail greetings. In GrandCentral, I can click on a button the website to have it call me so I can record my greetings. Or, I can simply call my GrandCentral number, it knows me, and I can change that stuff.

The initial process on PhoneFusion reminds me of setting up the voicemail for a typical user on a PBX. Dial your number, press pound, enter your access code, etc. Too much work. I understand why some people never set up their voicemail greetings, much less use their voicemail. It's too complicated! See full article.

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VoIP Through The Corporate Firewall

VoIP, while many things, is designed to make communications easier. One of the challenges I face as a remote worker for a large corporation is VoIP-at least in the way it was meant to be used.

My challenge: the corporate firewall. It stops VoIP-at least using industry standard protocols-dead in it's tracks. Sure, I can use VoIP inside the firewall, but what if you have a business need to cross that firewall?

Is there any wonder why people use Skype in droves? If you can reach the Internet at all, Skype will find a way through-or around-your firewall. At the end of the day, that's what people care about-what works. See full article.

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Don't Leave Me A Message

Voicemail is a feature that seems to come with just about every VoIP solution out there. While it's been a staple on landlines as well, the one thing that VoIP companies bring to the table is sending voicemail over email. An audio file-MP3 or WAV depending on the service-is sent to your email.

Forget that. I'd rather not get a message in the first place, or at least have the message turned into some more useful form. YouMail is nice in that I can point my mobile phone's voicemail at this system. It will do the dirty work of transcribing the voicemail into text and send it-as an SMS-to my phone.

YouMail isn't perfect, but it does a passable job. There's no reason YouMail or a similar service couldn't be incorporated into a voip service provider offering. It'd be yet one more thing that would differentiate your service.

Meanwhile, if you do call me, don't leave a message. Email me, SMS me, or contact me some other way. See full article.

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HiDef Conferencing Now Has Outlook Plugin

The folks behind HiDef Conferencing have created a plugin for Microsoft Outlook, making it easier to schedule meetings using your HiDef Conferencing.

With this plugin installed, two new buttons appear in your Outlook: "Manage HiDef Account" which simply opens a web browser window where you can manage your account, and "Schedule HiDef Conference" which lets you set up a calendar invite where the details of the HiDef Conferencing bridge is entered automatically.

Press Release. See full article.

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Truphone Giving New Customers Extra Credit

While Truphone used to have free calls to the PSTN until recently-but only for those who signed up at the beginning-new customers can get in on some free call action as well.

Well, ok, it's only $8 USD, instead of the usual $2 credit for new signups. And it's only for a limited time (offer expires at 0:00 BST 11 July 2008). But still, that's still 133 minutes to customers in the Tru Zone, which includes landlines in 40 countries as well as mobile phones in the U.S. and Canada.

While WiFi calling from a compatible Nokia handset is a cool thing-when you have a wifi connection available-I'm waiting for the Truphone SIM card. Won't be as cheap as WiFi calls, but loads more convenient. See full article.

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Dell Video Chat Powered by SightSpeed

The folks at SightSpeed are getting their product out there. What better way to do so by having a Dell-branded version of the application pre-loaded on Dell's newest laptops?

It turns out that, as a Dell customer, you are essentially getting the SightSpeed Plus features for free. This includes 4-way video calling as well as 3 minute video voicemails! You also get 5 free minutes of PSTN calls, which isn't much, but it's enough to try out the service. See full article.

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Gizmo5 Now Served By Jajah

I was trying to figure out why this particular announcement was news. In fact, this was discussed on Friday's Squawk Box call about 23 minutes in.

Who cares what backend services platform Gizmo5-or any other VoIP company-uses? I suppose Level 3 might care, since they just lost Gizmo5's business. I might care if I used Gizmo5's service and the voice quality suddenly got better. Jajah certainly cares because they're getting more business out of the deal.

Maybe Jajah becoming a truly global carrier-and taking business away from the likes of Level3-is the story here. See full article.

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Developers and APIs Aren't A Business Model

Jaduka originally released their APIs for their telephony platform over a year ago, which can easily be used to integrate with other applications. Open the platform, let the masses create their own voice mashups, or so the theory went.

Developers signed up, alright, but they didn't create much. While the APIs are still there and you can sign up for their developer program, Jaduka switched strategies, providing custom applications to enterprises on their own. The end result? Over 4 million minutes of voice traffic a month.

Makes me wonder how many of Ribbit's more than 2,000 participants in their development program are actually developing money-making applications. It also makes me wonder if they have a plan B, because developers and an API aren't a business model. See full article.

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3CX PBX For Windows

From hardware PBXes like Jazinga, we move to a PBX that runs on Windows. 3CX sent me a press release about version 6.0 of their Windows-based PBX. They made a big deal out of adding 10 features in 20 weeks.

3CX has four different versions, including a free edition that is feature-limited, which includes an 8 simultaneous call limit. The other editions support additional features and more simultaneous calls (up to 32), as you can see in the comparison chart.

I suppose this is good if you're not comfortable with Linux-based solutions like Asterisk (and derivatives), but I am failing to see what is particularly innovative about this product other than it runs in Windows and is explicitly supported in virtual machines. Anyone? See full article.

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Jazinga Might Have The IP PBX Right

I got a piece of hardware from UPS on Monday from a company called Jazinga. It's a Wifi-enabled router with a PBX that promises to make it possible to have a PBX up and running without an IT staff. In it's pre-release form, it's not quite like that, but with some bug fixes (and updated documentation), this could be really big.

After going through their web-based setup wizard, which took maybe 15 minutes at the most, I had defined users, extensions, and an auto-attendant. There is a lot of features in the box to explore, but I left it at that for the moment.

One feature I did play with was device provisioning. The promise is plug-and-play, and it was basically that. Aastra, Cisco, Linksys, Polycom, and Snom handsets are supported in this manner. Given how complex these devices are to configure by hand, having the PBX do it for you is an absolute must!

I took a Linksys SPA-941, plugged it into the Jazinga box, reset it to factory defaults, and within a few minutes, it was an assignable IP phone on my Jazinga box. I had a similar experience with a Polycom IP600 phone-after I upgraded the antique firmware to something more current.

All in all, for a pre-release product, it left a favorable impression. More exploration in the days to come. See full article.

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iotum Launcing Calliflower: A Fresh Approach To Conference Calls

I am excited to see my friend Alec Saunders launch his latest baby: Calliflower. They have taken the Free Conference Calling application on Facebook, which has more than 200,000 users, and brought it to the rest of the web with a fresh, new look!

Feature-wise, at this point, it's not much different from the Facebok app, but it does look a lot nicer than the Facebook app. However, even those features are still pretty impressive. The web interface for the conference call is very easy to use. You can see exactly who is dialed in, complete with their picture. The "live wall" is there for anyone to contribute information to-before, during or after the call. Invitations and reminders are sent out-by SMS if you'd like. You can also record MP3s of calls for later use.

The web page isn't functioning yet, as it is scheduled to launch until Wednesday. However, you can find out more by joining the Alec Saunders Squawk Box call on Tuesday at 11am US-Eastern time. While you're there, you can get a taste of what you'll see with Calliflower! See full article.

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Experiencing iotum's Free Conference Call App on Facebook - 07 February 2008

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SightSpeed Business Goes 9-Way

The folks at SightSpeed continue to quietly amaze. As I mentioned last week, SightSpeed was going to announce 9-way video conferencing, and they did exactly that for their SightSpeed Business customers. SightSpeed Business customers can now talk to up to 9 people simultaneously on a video call with prices starting at $19.95 a month per user.

My experience with SightSpeed's 4-way video calling was pretty good. I'm told, though I haven't yet tested it myself, that the 9-way calling is even better thanks to some work they did on the server end. Keeping 9 videos in sync is quite a feat to say the least!

I wonder how this stacks up to the Halo conferencing system Nokia is employing internally. Buying everyone webcams and a copy of SightSpeed Business has got to be cheaper than building out these Halo conference rooms. See full article.

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William Shatner On iotum's Free Conference Service

My pal Alec Saunders got a major score for his Free Conference Call service on Facebook: a call with William Shatner!

This coming Thursday from 6:30PM to 8PM PDT, Allan Hunkin will spend 45 minutes interviewing him, primarily about his new autobiography entitled Up Till Now, and the balance of the time will be an open Q&A; session with the gathered masses. Most geeks know William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk from Star Trek fame, but he's done a number of other memorable roles, including Denny Crane on the T.V. show Boston Legal.

I hope Alec and his team are prepared for the flood of calls this is likely going to get. Register now while there's still space! See full article.

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My Lunch With Alec Saunders of iotum - 14 September 2007

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Experiencing iotum's Free Conference Call App on Facebook - 07 February 2008

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New Sponsor For Creative Weblogging: AIM Call Out

Every once in a while, I have to exercise my responsibilities as one of Creative Weblogging's "network bloggers" (i.e. I blog on a series of CW's tech-related blogs). This time, it's to tell you about one of CW's newest sponsors for the tech-related blogs: AIM Call Out.

AIM Call Out gives you three ways to make cheap calls to ordinary telephones: through the AOL Instant Messenger client on Windows, using any telephone using the Web Connect feature, and if you're a geek, using any SIP-enabled device you desire. $5 is all it takes to get started using this service. See full article.

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New Mobile VoIP service from MediaRing

Not only do users enjoy unlimited mobile calls between other users when connected to the Internet they can also have low rates for calling any fixed-line or moblie phone. With SIP-enabled phones, that have WiFi capabilities, MediaRing lets users also keep existing mobile phone numbers.

Sounds like the best of two worlds: mobility and choice to spend money wisely, all with seemless connectivity through an already existing phonebook. Think this is a huge cost? MediaRing says their rates for international calls start at 2 pennies a minute (sounds about the same as others).

I wonder as the success of this type of service is always dependent on an available wifi connection. I guess if we spen most of our time at home, work, or a coffee shop it'll work just fine. See full article.

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Raketu offering Global SMS Text Service at one of the lowest rates worldwide - 14 May 2007

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Can You Video Conference With 9 People At Once?

Peter Csathy, the CEO of SightSpeed, posted this picture on his blog today along with the following message: "While others don't even have multi-party video chat, we decided to up the ante to 9. And, we ain't done yet."

So what do the folks at SightSpeed have in mind? They did also launch their SightSpeed Light widget on hi5 as well, but I'm sure it's more than that. Maybe some better firewall traversal than bog-standard SIP provides? Maybe video quality that approaches Skype's high-quality offering?

But back to the question of 9 users at once. I have to imagine that, like with a four-way call on SightSpeed, a nine-way call goes through a central server at SightSpeed. I also have to imagine that managing that many video callers at once becomes somewhat challenging. It also could very well be distracting to see all those faces at once.

In any case, I'm looking forward to trying it out for myself. Question is: do I know 8 other people willing to try this at the same time? See full article.

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Go Pro on SightSpeed Free For 30 Days - 17 August 2007

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SightSpeed Means Business - 30 October 2007

Video Debugging on Skype for Mac Isn't Adequate - 21 November 2007

Why Dell Partnered With SightSpeed - 16 July 2008

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VoIP Providers One Step Closer To Proper 911 Access

While many U.S.-based voice over IP service providers already provide access to 911 service thanks to an FCC ruling requiring them to do so, it comes with a lot of limitations. Most service providers use a third party to do the work of connecting with the various public service answering points (PSAPs) in the various locale. It is also believed that the traditional telephone operators are blocking VoIP providers from accessing these critical services.

On Monday,