VoIP General News

26 September 2007

If small businesses are anything, they're cost conscious. And many are looking to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to help lower the monthly phone bill, often a big expense.

Switching to VoIP can be especially worthwhile if your company spends a lot on long-distance calls to far-flung employees, partners, and contacts. If you're already connected to some of these people via a local or wide area network (LAN/WAN), you might as well be making phone calls to them over the pipe that you're already paying for.

07 November 2007

FCC ruling brings VoIP service providers one step closer to becoming full-fledged phone companies

Last week, the FCC issued a ruling that takes VoIP service providers one step closer to becoming (dare we say) full-fledged phone companies by requiring that the VoIP providers offer local number portability. The decision was adopted unanimously.

07 January 2008

13 May 2008

A new Facebook application called Phone-Me-Now allows Facebook members to place free calls from their friends' Facebook profile pages, without revealing either party's caller ID.

The company, Ifbyphone, was offering the first 1,000 accounts 100 free minutes per month to regular U.S. phone numbers, though we doubt there are any of those left.

Standard Ifbyphone subscriptions start at $14.95 per month.

26 September 2007

TeleGeography is reporting that The Netherlands’ consumer fixed line telephony market grew by 2,000 connections in the second quarter of this year, bringing their total to 5.999 million. During the same time period, the total number of Dutch consumer VoIP subscriptions rose 7.1% to 2.2 million.

06 November 2007

The communications watchdogs have refused to step in to help Voice Over IP (VoIP) users who want to keep their phone number when switching service providers. It appears some providers are exploiting a loophole in the industry's self-regulated code that requires them to "port" numbers on request.

Small businessman Justin Avery recently approached the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman after he struggled to find a service provider who would port his number. Mr Avery says he sensed an effective restraint of trade.

16 January 2008

New research has revealed that more than half of all UK firms now use IP telephony.

Extreme Networks and partner Data Integration polled 115 firms that employed more than 500 people and found that 59 per cent run IP telephony on their Lan, while only 32 per cent run IP video technologies.

03 May 2008

To cut your phone bill, and spend longer chatting to loved ones overseas, get VoIP, says James Daley

The cost of making a phone call has fallen dramatically over the past few years, with many landline providers now charging nothing more than the monthly line rental fee for customers who only use their phone to make national or local calls in the evenings or at the weekend.

25 September 2007

Being the busy, frugal SMB IT professional that you are, you’re always looking for ways to do things quicker and cheaper. When it comes to phone service, that might mean switching to VoIP. 

After all, VoIP is generally easier to manage and less expensive than traditional landline service. What you sacrifice in call quality, your reasoning goes, you more than make up for in setup time and cost.

11 November 2007