High Definition comes to VoIP

Customers can expect higher quality calls in the future as HD mobile technology comes to VoIP.
By the year 2015 it is anticipated that HD telephony solutions will be commonplace among IP mobile users.

The prediction comes from ABI. The research company believes that by the year 2014, more than four hundred and fifty million customers will use HD IP telephony to make clear, high quality calls. A massive network upgrade will of course take place in order to enable this.

Asked about how smooth the transition to HD VoIP will be, the principal analyst at ABI Research, Fritz Jordan, said: "As newer 3G networks can already use the High Definition format, the upgrade to HD voice will not be especially expensive.”

“Because of that affordability HD voice will take off in developing markets like the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa and Latin America.”

The product will be attractive to both consumers and businesses as more and more people search for the ultimate clarity of communication.

There are already more than nine hundred million VoIP customers who get clear wideband sound on products such as Skype, and they will want the same clarity from their mobile providers.

High Definition is already prevalent in television and radio, so it is strange that telephone technology, which preceded both radio and tv, is still waiting for HD.

3CX receives Unified Communications Magazine 2009 Product of the Year Award


3CX Phone System for Windows Recognized for Exceptional Innovation

London, April 20 — 3CX announced today that Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC®) has named 3CX Phone System for Windows as a recipient of its 2009 Unified Communications magazine Product of the Year Award.

Nick Galea, CEO, 3CX says “3CX excels at building an easy to use and easy to manage unified communications platform for any size business. We are delighted that the 3CX Phone  System for Windows has been recognized  for the unique unified  communications capabilities and was awarded for the 2009 Product of the  year Award for two consecutive years."

3CX Phone System for Windows is a revolutionary IP PBX that delivers unified communications technology by merging voice and data networks, allowing businesses to  simplify real time delivery of information and ensure ease of use.

With 3CX IP PBX,  collaboration between co-workers is made easier and cooperation with  business partners and clients becomes more direct; even when the  parties are not located in the same place.

To read more on this press release, please click here.

VoIP creates problems for Californian emergency services

For all the benefits of VoIP, such as increased efficiency and cost savings for businesses, the phone system technology has its downsides too.
Emergency services in California have complained about being called out to large office blocks and campuses without knowing exactly where the incident is taking place.

Karina Yandell, the corporate development manager of 911 ETC Inc, said: “If an employee dials 911 but the caller address is just a billing address, emergency services can arrive at a multi-story building and have no clue where exactly the emergency is.”
She added: “VoIP has brought the issue to the forefront because of the problem it presents for 911 calls. Up until now the public has been largely unaware of this glitch.”

Ms Yandell was speaking in the hope that the state of California addresses issue with organizations which employ multiple-line telephone systems.
E-911 is an American system that matches phone numbers with physical addresses. It is mainly used by emergency services responders.
Currently only a tiny fraction of California’s 1.3 million businesses, non-profit organisations and government entities have provided telephone extension location information to the voluntary E-911 database.

The lack of these records creates a gap in the Californian emergency call system. California is now one of a number of states proposing regulations which would shore up the gaps in these records.

VoIP predicted to help end recession by bringing businesses new revenue streams

VoIP technology is predicted to help end the recession by bringing new revenue streams to small-to-medium enterprises (SME), according to VoIP and broadband services provider DSML.
A report by Infotechnics Research has detailed how VoIP service revenue has increased towards the end of 2009 and will continue to do so.
This was further substantiated by a recent web poll by trade publication Comms Business which found that 54% of respondents had lost a sale to a hosted VoIP company.
John Carter, the managing director of DMSL said: "There is a rapid uptake of hosted VoIP for a number of reasons. First of all the technology is here, it works and it makes sense.
“You can have hosted VoIP up and running in a matter of minutes, and it gives businesses more flexibility and will rapidly deliver a return on investment. VoIP is the future and as exit the recession, more businesses -especially SMEs and start-ups - will be looking to adopt hosted services that allow them to do business anytime and anywhere.
He added: “VoIP also has the advantage of allowing them to upscale quickly and inexpensively when they need to."

Volcano eruption highlights VoIP technology benefits


With thousands of business travellers stranded in Europe this week due to a cloud of volcanic ash in the skies, many meetings have not gone ahead as planned.

As flights remain grounded for a fifth day, the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland is estimated to have already cost the UK economy alone some £500m.

This act of god has inadvertently showed many business why they need to get to grips with VoIP technology.

Voice over Internet Protocol allows business to make low cost calls and conduct video conferencing at times when meetings cannot be done face-to-face.

A statement from Outsourcery, a UK hosted IT and IP telephony soutions company, said companies which had IP telephony solutions were not affected by the Europe wide flight ban.

Commenting on the new technology, Alistair McKinnon, senior product manager for IP multimedia at Virgin Media Business said: "It amazes me that some companies neglect new technology which can help minimise the disruption to their business in hectic times."

He added: "Not only are the technologies able to help when the problems occur, but they also improve productivity on a day-to-day basis."

A business in Pennyslyvania, America, was recently singing the praises of VoIP after a huge snow storm had prevented employees from coming to work.

Despite the disruption staff were still able to close a number of deals on their smart phones without needing to be in the office.


Lotus Racing Formula 1 communications accelerate with 3CX


3CX appointed Official Technical Supplier

Lotus Racing and 3CX announce that, 3CX has been appointed as technical supplier and that Lotus Racing has installed 3CX Phone System in its technical centre and mobile race track operations. Thepopular VoIP PBX system will be used for each F1 race around the globe – providing the vital comms link between Norfolk HQ and the track team.

Commenting on this alliance, Lotus Racing Head of IT Bill Peters said “We needed a state of the art PBX that would deliver unified communications and high quality voice across the globe. 3CX and Lotus Racing clearly share the same ethos of excellence and success, with a winning attitude.” 3CX Phone System Enterprise Edition 8 was implemented last month at the Technical Centre in Hingham, Norfolk with 1 Patton ISDN E1 gateway, VoIP Unlimited trunks and 130 Cisco SPA phones.

Nick Galea, CEO of 3CX felt privileged to be selected by Lotus Racing. “It's a team with a long heritage of success and technical innovation in a sport which depends so much on technology and reliability. We’ve built reliability into the core of 3CX and to receive acknowledgment from Lotus Racing is a great accolade for the 3CX Team.”

Although there are many benefits to implementing 3CX Phone System, the top paybacks for Lotus were seen as follows:

  • Mobility: 3CX Voip technology enables staff to work remotely around the globe. Remote extensionstrackside enables the racing crew to talk to each other irrespective of their location. The MyPhone portal makes it easy foreach employee to configure rules on how calls were to be treated and routed.

  • Manageability: Extensions and phone lines can be added on-the-go with a few clicks and the phone system can be backed up like any other windows application.

  • Savings: A large proportion of Lotus’ phone traffic is now sent over inter-company VoIP
    circuits thereby considerably reducing high mobile phone costs and prohibitive roaming charges.

  • Unified Messaging: Employees have easy desktop call control and can contact colleagues and transfer calls with a click of a button. Voice mail and faxes are delivered to the users email inbox.

To read more on this press release, please click here.