VOIP and SIP News

An American college has overhauled its traditional PBX to replace it with a new VoIP phone system.

The Western State College is based in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and their college administration team decided to embrace new technology in order to save costs.

Chad Robinson, the director of computer services for Western State College, told TMCnet: "We have put IP phones on the Phybridge UniPhyer network switch and it works fantastically well. Using this method of VoIP has allowed us to save money and improve inter-college communications. "


To do this they had IP telephony solutions installed throughout all offices and dormitories in what amounted to a total communications upgrade .
Although it would have cost them $20,000 to lay the necessary cabling and make the dormitories accessible to VoIP via cabling, they found another solution.

College officials made the decision to Install a Phybridge UniPhyer. This device boosted the signal of the voice and data network and allowed students in their dormitories to access the new communication system without the use of cumbersome cables.

Saving $20,000 meant that Western State College could put the money to better use and they bought new computers and printers as well as new VoIP phones.

Australian troops will now be able to make use of VoIP in the field.

The move is supposed to be a boost to their spirits, according to industry publication Computerworld which got a look at some of the defense documents.

However there will only be 370 computers for all of the 3,700 Australian armed forces based in 13 different countries.

That means that one computer will have to be shared between 10 soldiers.

As well as being stationed domestically, Australian troops serve in places such as the Solomon Islands, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq.

The access to cheap calls via Voice over Internet Protocol, as well as IM and email, will be made via Wi-Fi over a PC, an easy an affordable way to contact family and friends.

The PCs will have a minimum bandwidth of 56kbps per user. This large capacity will enable the troops to use a variety of features including software, PDF files, music on Apple iTunes and videos.

Of course the use of VoIP telephony by the army has some security concerns but there is special malware and anti-virus software to deal with any online threats.

So it looks like VoIP is set to improve the lives of Australian soldiers by allowing them to keep in contact with life back home.

3CX, which makes the VoIP PBX 3CX Phone System and the Windows 3CX softphone, today added a free VoIP phone for the Android OS to its growing list of products.

The phone can be downloaded for free by both consummers and enterprises.

Therefore Android smartphone users on a variety of phones (including the Google Nexus, the HTC Desire and the Sony Ericsson Xperia) can make free phone calls via 3G and wireless.

The 3CX free VoIP phone for Android mobile works with standards based SIP servers including 3CX and other Phone Systems.
It is not locked down to a particular PBX or provider.

This gives users the flexibility to pick and choose their favorite VoIP PBX. They can also switch at any time or use different VoIP providers simultaneously.

The CEO of 3CX, Nick Galea, said: “Smartphones will soon be the defacto mobile communication option. With a docking station they can even act as a desk phone in time.
"A VoIP PBX must embrace this technology and deliver seamless integration to provide true mobility to its users.”
“Smartphone support is a key component of our strategy and the 3CXPhone for Android delivers this vision”.

He added: “We chose Android as our first platform because it is gaining market share and evolving at a rapid pace. Right now in the smartphone market Android has an advantage as it is standards-based, open and vendor independent. Furthermore Android mobiles are available at competitive prices.”

3CXPhone for Android is based on SiPagent. 3CX acquired this popular SIP phone for Android in June 2010. SiPagent users can upgrade free of charge to the 3CXPhone.

With all the talk of VoIP takeovers and business manoeuvres this week (I am specifically thinking of Cisco's rumoured move to acquire Skype), it is easy to lose sight of the actual marvel that we have this technology.

Now I am not normally a person who looks at something and thinks 'how does that work', but I have found myself wondering about the mechanics of VoIP this week.

So when you speak into your computer microphone next time, have a think about this.

Each individual sound in your voice is broken down and recorded as a unit of data which is then assigned a numerical value. This is done with an Analogue-to-Digital Converter (ADC).

Right now your voice has been digitalised. The next step is to compress the sound down into an audio file using a codec. The data is reduced, but quality is not compromised.

This data stream is broken into smaller packets, but each are assigned a sort of address that allows them to be reconstructed in the right sequence. In this respect it is a bit similar to the technology used to send an email.

However the transport layer used by VoIP is called User Datagram Protocol (UDP) with an application layer known as Real-time Transmission Protocol (RTP). This is an optimum method of delivering audio and video over the Internet.

As well as recognizing packets of information, the RTP sometimes drops them if they have not arrived quickly enough to be sequenced. If it didn't there would be long delays in speech. That is why it is essential to have a fast internet connection. If you do not you will hear cut offs in the conversation.

Once the voice data has arrived, it is reorganized and converted from digital to analogue so that your call is comprehensible.

Pretty amazing huh?

Google VoIP is coming to the Middle East. The call phones feature for Gmail which was released last week will soon make its way to countries such as Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. However it will not be available in the United Arab Emirates due to governmental restrictions.

Call phones uses Voice over Internet Protocol so that Gmail customers can make cheap or free calls to their contacts. The service was released in America last week, but there is no fixed timeline for release in the Middle East.

The news appeared on the Emirates 24/7 website which published a Google statement.

The Internet search engine giant said: “Google VoIP is currently being rolled out in the United States but this is only our first step. Google will be rolling out additional localised versions but we have nothing specific to announce at the moment.”

Currently Gmail users in America can make a phone call directly from their Gmail to the Saudi Arabia  for a low rate of just 11 cents per minute.

For Oman it costs 15 cents, 19 cents for the United Arab Emirates, 17 cents for Bahrain. Qatar is the most pensive calling destination at 26 cents while Kuwait is the cheapest at 9 cents a minute.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) fraud will be targeted by the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police.

Police in Kathmandu said that criminals are using the anonymity provided by VoIP to make money at the expense of the country. They have busted four such rackets in the last month.

Deputy Inspector General Bigyan Raj Sharma of the Nepali Police said: “Our investigations found that illegal VoIP rackets can result in criminal activities and revenue deficit.”
“We have decided that now is the time to crack down and bring the guilty to justice. As per the Telecommunications Act of 1997, we will take action against Internet Service Providers and all those operating, or helping to operate, VoIP for criminal usage.”

The hard-line taken by Nepali Police  means that even people who are providing a residence for criminal VoIP usage will be prosecuted. The Telecommunications Act states that a person intentionally causing adverse effect, damage or any other loss to the telecommunication structure will be fined an amount equal to the loss or damage, sentenced to five years imprisonment or both.

Anyone with information to give can contact the toll free number 141-516-1113.

With Skype selling out and Gmail making a foray into the world of free Internet calling, now is a good time to ask what the future of Voice over Internet Protocol holds.
A Network World article I read made a very good point:

“When will we ask at what point are public switched telephone network (PSTN) going to be phased out so that everything can be changed over to SIP addresses?


My response would be at about the same time we get rid of the Post Office and switch everything over to e-mail addresses. In other words, never.


There will always be a PSTN. My mom will always have a phone in her house and yes, one of those phones is still a rotary dial. But as she does now, everyone in the near future will have a SIP address for placing and receiving VoIP phone calls. That is the future of VoIP."

There are certainly markets fears that the entry of Skype into the corporate world could be bad news for phone system providers. Yet that is only in free market economies like the United States.

In places such as Lebanon and India, governments are resistant to VoIP because of the pressure put on them by local telecommunications companies. For example in India all of VoIP services must provide written transcriptions of the information that goes through them, ostensibly for security purposes. It is unlikely that this will happen and it is interesting to see how Google will respond concerning their new Gmail Voice product.

It is no wonder that governments are shifty. Telsyte research director Foad Fadaghi said that Skype Connect for enterprise will hurt phone system providers.

"Skype is essentially providing a way for your PBX system to be connected to Skype, rather than a traditional phone system. Therefore phone system and network providers are right to feel threatened.”

He added: “Yet businesses will certainly be attracted to the significant cost savings, particularly those that need to make international calls.”

This could be part of the reasoning why rumours suggest that Cisco will try to buy Skype before the company completes an IPO.

Skype Connect charges costs $7.78 per month per line. It offers outbound calls from desktop phones to mobiles and landlines at normal Skype rates, while you can receive inbound calls through a "click and call" button on a business website.

Skype incorporates traditional PBX features such as automatic call distribution, call routing, conferencing, voicemail, auto-attendant, call recording and more. There are also plans for a videoconferencing feature.

It could be that we are looking at the future of VoIP.