VOIP and SIP News

3CX, the company which created the award-winning VoIP product - 3CX Phone System for Windows - is opening a new office in Switzerland.

The 3CX CEO Nick Galea said: “3CX recognizes that Switzerland is a key market for SIP-based IP PBX systems and our Swiss team can provide businesses of all sizes the know-how and support required to successfully adopt a complete IP PBX for Windows.

"The product, together with a comprehensive support team, will give customers productivity enhancements and mobility. We are extremely excited about the opportunities that exist in Switzerland and will expand our operations in line with company growth.”

3CX already has a number of worldwide offices in countries such as the USA, the UK, Germany and Australia and the new Swiss office will help to meet rising VoIP demand in that country.

The office is located in the city of Zug where it can support Swiss 3CX users while becoming pivotal in the expanding 3CX partner network. That includes 3CX clients, suppliers and partners.

The 3CX Phone System for Windows works with VoIP gateways and SIP Phones to replace a traditional proprietary PBX system.

3CX is a SIP-based IP PBX that allows businesses to break free from costly hardware and is very easy to integrate and manage, especially within the Windows Network infrastructure.

Tobias Eberhart, the MD of 3CX Switzerland, added: “3CX is a global leader in VoIP systems. Our marquee product, the 3CX Phone System, has already achieved an excellent reputation for its quality and extensive feature set. We are proud to announce the launch of 3CX in Switzerland and are expecting a significant market share in the IP PBX field.”

The new 3CX office address is:

3CX Software Service Center Schweiz
Bahnhofstrasse 32
Postfach 1103
6301 Zug
Switzerland

It can be contacted on:

Tel: +41 (0)41 511 8000
Fax: +41 (0)41 511 8001
E-Mail: info@3cx.ch
Web: www.3CX.ch

3CX, the award winning phone system for Windows, has released build number 3659 of the Voice Application Designer.

This update includes improvements to the deployment settings, a new installer package and it also fixes any bugs.

The new installer is easy to download on the 3cx website.

Along with the new installer package, here are some of the changes you can expect.

- In order to fix invalid characters problems, the encoding during project deployment and file saving has changed.

- You can load files and projects even after network travel and format transformations because invalid XML characters are now ignored.

- When a custom component is deleted, it is automatically disabled everywhere it is being used.

- XML return values are now well handled by every component.

- The deployment properties have been simplified. Users now only need to select the web server used by the 3CX installation and all parameters are automatically configured (URL, port etc.). Project properties have been changed, but the project files are compatible assuming the default value.

For a full list of changes visit 3CX.

Residents of the United Arab Emirates can now make use of the Viber application for free voice over internet protocol(VoIP) calls on their iPhones.

The program works by sending bunches of data across a wireless Internet connection. It is legal as long as used in a special data package.

The application can be purchased from the Apple store and allows both domestic and international VOIP calls on the iPhone. It also has a nifty feature of being able to detect which other phones have the Viber application in your address book and showing you the contact details.

The Chief Commercial Officer for telecoms company du, Farid Faraidooni, said that this was one of a number of legal VoIP in the UAE applications.

Strict legislation preventing VoIP in most cases throughout the Emirates has now been lifted.

He said “Voice over Internet protocol is popular among UAE iPhone users and some products are legal in the UAE telecommunications sector. Their use will not affect our revenue.”

VOIP is now accessible in the UAE from iPhone to iPhone but not from smartphones to landlines or mobile phones.

I just read an amusingly titled article about practising safe SIP.

This is a witty title but also a good analogy when you consider that computers can get diseases in the same way that humans do.

Therefore there are a lot of decisions to be made and risks to be recognised when setting up VoIP. VoIP and SIP Trunking is incredibly useful for fast and cost efficient communication. However any such system is always at risk of being corrupted, and if it is corrupted there is a lot of important data at stake.

You only have to look at the events over at gossip website Gawker recently when hackers managed to access more than 1 million user passwords through a security breach. It is thought that there are many more infiltrations which are not reported due to embarrassment on the part of the company. The cost of these breaches is significant.

When you are considering the advantages of virtual PBX hosting, you should also keep in mind the risks. These include denial of service attacks and the exposure of network vulnerabilities. IP telephony is a particularly good target because there are so many endpoints as well as weak infrastructures created by the transition to IP communications.

It is up to sellers, value added resellers, IT professionals and users to make the system as secure as possible with high security passwords to prevent it being compromised.

An authority on the subject Dan York wrote a book entitled the Seven Deadliest Unified Communications Attacks. He identifies the weak spots as being in applications, integration and equipment. That includes PBXs, database access and the integration of video into your VoIP or UC system.

Yet there are a number of Session Border Controllers firms which offer managed VoIP security solutions such as AudioCodes and Sipera. They could be a worthwhile investment.

The VoIP equipment industry will be worth $6bn by 2015, according to market research firm In-Stat.

Mobile VoIP gateway equipment market is being snapped up by mobile and fixed-line users.

Service providers are making big bucks and can also offer infrastructure support to both individuals and enterprises. While the VoIP industry is profitable, there are consumer savings to be had compared to normal cellular bills.

The advantage of VoIP can really be felt among mobile workers who can stay connected with the office even when they are in transit.

VoIP can increasingly be accessed via smartphones as long as you are in reach of Wi-Fi connectivity.

With faster and faster broadband networks, VoIP is just one of a number of
unified communications advantages which include instant messaging and presence.

Increasingly VoIP is becoming a must have technology, but many users will play catch up for a while as they learn to deploy and manage their systems.

Yet companies such as 3CX offer an upgrade or replacement of your standard PBX to small and medium sized businesses.

Voice over Internet Protocol is causing problems in the Himalayan country of Nepal.

Companies which have sprung up and are using the service illegally are costing the legal telecoms companies big bucks.

Only four companies — ATS Telecom, United Telecom, Nepal Telecom and Spice Nepal Ltd have licences to operate VoIP services and they are suffering at the hands of a number of illgeal operators.

Lost revenue totals more than two million US dollars (NPR160 million) per month, according to the parliament’s Public Account Committee.

Rajendra Singh Bhandari, the Deputy Inspector General of Nepal Police said in a statement: "Illegal VoIP channels are eating up huge amount of revenue and account for calls worth two million minutes. They are also posing the country of Nepal with serious security threats."

Nepal has attemped a crackdown, but black market VoIP providers are hard to track down. Although they have shut down around 160 operations, 5 still remain.

Jay Mukunda Khanal, the joint Home Ministry secretary, explained that VoIP accounts for great revnue loss and can also be used by organised crime outfits to commit fraud.

Companies breaking the law can be tried under Article 47 of 1997 Nepal Doorsanchar Act. It states that doing anything harmful to the telecom system or its equipment with malicious intent is a punishable crime with a fine or jail time.

Skype may have suffered from the recent service outage which left millions of users disappointed, but the VoIP company also has something to celebrate.

The launch of the Skype video-calling service for the Apple iPhone has been a huge success.

Record numbers of users downloaded the app this month. Normally Skype sees around 25 million users sign on at peak times, but this week that figure was boosted to 27 million users.

Another filip for Skype has been the announcement of a deal with video streaming company Qik. That will help to provide excellent quality video calls.

These developments will be good news for the company which is seeking an Initial Public Offering and it also hopes to a corporate service to users.

The Research firm Telegeography reported that one in five international calls were made using Skype last year.