This acquisition by SalesForce.com shows how far reaching their efforts to bring cloud computing to the epicenter of business really is.
For companies and developers in the Mashup and Voice XML space this will provide a lot of opportunities, and mean that SalesForce.com's AppExchange becomes a key driver and promotional vehicle for companies that can combine phone, databased information support and call completion.
A Robert Half sponsored survey's results shows that 16% of CIO's plan to adopt Video Conferencing in the next five years in the same survey that says 13% plan to adopt Collaborative workspaces.
This is huge boon to web cam companies and any of the firms in the video conferencing and web based collaboration space. It also underscore the decision of IBM to have purchased former client Web Dialogs (authors of Unyte) and have turned it into Lotus' Sametime.
TechCrunch reports that Aircell is launching WiFi in the Sky today.
As a person who used to choose his flights by which airlines had Airfone and later which airlines offered the ill fated Boeing Connexion service for International travel, I'm happy to hear this service is now a reality.
So, while there's no VoIP allowed, at least we can all chat and email.
A quick read of a press release from Campbell, CA based research and analyst firm Infonetics shows that VoIP usage and uptake continues to grow the world over.
It also points out who the big players are. Comcast in the USA leads the pick up here in the States. Orange in France is selling VoIP like mad too.
Other stats show encouraging words for companies selling VoIP into the SMB and Enterprise space too.
Uber Analyst, Jon Arnold, is back from vacation and he has his game face on.
In a TMCNet post Jon drills down on the reasons why BT was so fast to pay what the did for Ribbit.
He then goes on to highlight Mobivox's moves with Jajah and the reasons why ifByPhone are both companies to watch. While both are agency clients, Jon's independent analysis is spot on, and resonates a belief I've had for some time about applications being the driving force in the 2.0 era of telephony. But, without platforms and infrastructure to support all of these newly created applications, none of this stuff works well outside the lab.
This is the kind of story I like to see, not only because it has direct benefit to clients (Truphone and Boingo) but also because one of the company's whose advisory board I sit on Agito, is smack in the middle of this whole Voice over WiFi game.
Voice over WiFi works. And it works very well. Just last week I had a series of VoWiFi calls via my AT&T 3G connection using client Truphone on both a Nokia N95 and an Apple iPhone that was tethered to Joiku Spot on my Nokia E71 from the 30th floor of the Intercontinental San Francisco.
Joiku, which recently announced a deal with FON, takes an incoming 3G signal, then sends it out the WiFi side of the handset, much the same way an Apple Mac Book can do with an incoming broadband connection via the Ethernet port and out via WiFi. What makes Joiku so useful is that it can be used virtually anywhere there's a 3G connection, and thus eliminates the need for other data cards, or things like Cradlepoint.
Want proof that this voice over WiFi is happening? Look at all the companies creating new devices and services that do exactly that in one form or another. Comcast, Sprint, T-Mobile.
As someone who has used both Truphone and T-Mobile's Hotspot @ Home services, I can safely say, they both work as promised, with the edge to Truphone in quality and ability to get around hotel NAT/Firewall issues.
Over on DSL Reports is a note that AT&T has stopped putting new customers on their VoIP platform called CallVanatge.
While current customers are not affected, it looks like any new additions are a thing of the past for the foreseeable future.
As a CallVantage customer, I have yet to have any major issues other than a burned out Linksys ATA in the four years or so I've used it. The service remains in my mind the benchmark that all other service have to follow.
That said, this clearly opens the door for ailing Vonage to make some network related moves to shore up things and they could quickly step into the primary non cable supplier of VoIP. Additionally, this likely means that we'll see more VoIP related uVerse marketing and a stepped up "take-a-way" program by the cable MSO's to get those customers (and their phone numbers) away from the former Ma Bell.
This also opens the door for companies like clients PhoneFusion, PhoneGnome, Jazinga, Junctions Networks, non-client Earthlink and others to start adding new customers who want a Vonage alternative.
Update-> Tom Keating weighs in as well on what he thinks this means.
The Logic House has a post about collaboration and team working over the Internet.
As someone who is regularly distance working and making sure things stay on track, the tools are there for us to really work from anywhere.
That said, bandwidth remains a key to the whole game. It's not just download and upload, it's also backhaul, meaning what gets the traffic from your network back onto the main Internet.
With all the penetration cable has today, it's nice to see that the analyst community is still predicting growth of broadband adoption.
A report in America's Network cites the Dell'Orro group saying that voice will be the driver through 2012 of expanded numbers of subscribers to broadband.
Network World reports that GENERAL DYNAMICS has been awarded a contract from the NSA to produce and deliver a three mode secure VoIP phone.
At Cluecon this week, on a panel led by pal Dan York, we actually discussed the need for secure VoIP so this story is very timely.
Basically this handset will include SIP plus the SCIP and Cisco's SCCP making the phone highly useful and eliminating the need for multiple endpoints to talk to different protocol based networks.
Recent Comments