VOIP and SIP News

The Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX) is boosting bandwidth to drive Voice over Internet Protocol by providing Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

AMS-IX is a public peering company and sees the SLAs as the roadmap to guaranteed better service during the transition to VoIP on 4G networks.

While Mobile network operators have IP connections with each other, 4G networks will use IP packets for everything, which will produce a huge amount of data which needs to be dealt with.

Therefore AMS-IX has brought out the Inter-IPX IP Packet Exchange which allows mobile network operators to conform to GSMA standards. Data transmission of the customer packets will start next month.

It is somewhat unchartered territory and many companies which have their own peering agreements will look to see how the AMS-IX experiment goes.

What is certain is that they will have to deal with a huge volume of traffic once the world switches to 4G.

VoIP service Skype is once again experiencing problems after users saw the software crash on their computers on Tuesday, June 7.

Skype, which is now owned by technology giant Microsoft, was quick to downplay the problem, saying that it was a configuration issue. They have now released an automatic update to fix the glitch.

It is only ten days since Skype last went down. That time the VoIP service issued advice on how to fix the problem by deleting a "shared.xml" file which had been corrupted. Automated Mac and Windows updates soon followed.

However quick the problems are getting fixed this will hardly inspire confidence in Skype. While problems in a free VoIP service may be tolerated, Skype clearly has some way to go before offering the reliability required by enterprise VoIP.

Furthermore Skype has just been threatened by a Russian computer programmer who unravelled its coding secrets to create an open source version of Skype which he is offering for free.

Right now Microsoft must be wondering where it will be getting Return On Investment from.

A Russian computer programmer has just reverse-engineered Skype’s proprietary VoIP protocols.

Claiming that good products cannot remain hidden forever, Efim Bushmanov has taken the time to unravel the code with makes multi-billion dollar Skype service tick.

The computer genius denies any malicious intent and instead invites Microsoft, which recently bought Skype for $8.5 billion, to work with him rather than against him.

Rather than being party to copyright violations he says that he sees an open source future for VoIP. That involved making Skype compatible for Linux users who have been waiting patiently for Skype to do that for some time now.

Mr Bushmanov told Eweek Europe “Skype presents a lot of security challenges I was simply curious to see what was inside.”

The Russian, who lives in a remote part of the country north of Moscow, has become a hot topic on the worldwide web after releasing the Skype protocols on his blog.

Nevertheless he praises Skype as a good product which has more polish than open source software.

Enterprise managers who want to use Voice over Internet Protocol as a hosted solution may look nervously at the recent problems faced by Skype, according to Information Week.

Despite being bought out by technology giant Microsoft in a vast $8.5 billion deal, a recent outage meant many Skype users were unable to log into their accounts or make phone calls.

Although the rapidly resolved problem was put down to a software glitch, it will make enterprises think twice about using the commercial version of Skype for VoIP calls and video conferencing.

Whatever the size of business, companies can ill afford communications breakdowns such as this one and dropped calls and poor service can lead to a decrease in revenue, or even worse an altoghether failure to land a big contract.

Customers need confidence in the enterprise and that can only be gained through a secure and reliable unified communications infrastructure.

Darrel Bowman, the CEO of mynetworkcompany.com, said: "As we become more reliant on overall basic business functions, cloud-based applications, and storage, IT service providers need to vet cloud partners more thoroughly. This is done to ensure that they actually have the necessary redundancy for a cloud offering to be successful in the long-term."

It is therefore unlikely that Microsoft will let Skype fail and it has big plans for the service, giving it its own division within Microsoft and hoping to use it with devices such as the Windows Phone 7.

While Skype outages may be accepted on a free service that it used by consumers, they certainly will not be tolerated in a business capacity.

Pervasip, a provider of flexible back-office capabilities, high quality VoIP services and automated provisioning systems, has arranged a deal to clear its debt.

Despite having an estimated 300 million mobile VoIP users over the next three years, Pervasip needs help to foreclose on its assets.

The Pervasip CEO Paul Riss said: “We are pleased to have a friendly investor who wants to work with us to build value for our shareholders.”

The wholesale VoIP provider for SMBs is working with strategic investor NetCapital.com which has agreed to purchase all outstanding debt.

NetCapital said in a statement that it had been following Pervasip for years and waiting for the right time to invest.

Chairman John Fanning said: “Pervasip technology is a true example of how game-changing vision can be forged into a paradigm-breaking commercial product.”

Netcapital aims to help Pervasip grow through the introduction of additional technologies. These include wireless networks to fully take advantage of the boom in mobile VoIP.

Pervasip has also experienced high demand for video VoIP lines and offers Lomb and Bausch video phones.

Voice over Internet Protocol has many attractions to small businesses and consumers but chief among these is the option to make cheap or free internet calls.

The big test of VoIP will be whether people are actually willing to pay for the service. One of the reasons why Skype is so popular is because it allows to you make free worldwide calls from PC to PC between Skype users. Now that Microsoft has bought Skype there is every chance that they will try to monetise the service.

But it is not only the big corporations that are looking to get their money's worth. The Federal communications Commission of America is eyeing the chance to levy a connection fee on VoIP.

So far VoIP has been free of the traditional charges that are levied on companies like Verizon, which allows VoIP companies such as Vonage to undercut their rates.

Verizon is obviously not happy with this state of affairs as reflected by its filing to the FCC: “The top priority remains the urgent need to decide the proper compensation rate for VoIP traffic. The commission should immediately set a single, low national default rate of $0.0007 per minute for this traffic.”

They have seen the decreasing use of Public Switched Telephone Networks, and with it a huge decrease in revenue.

As the FCC looks at moving toward a broadband-based network it has to focus on the return on investment.

Dale Hatfield, a former chief of the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology, told Politico: “You’ve got an antiquated telephone network out there. It should be gotten rid of, but there’s an awful lot of money being made on that network.”

On the other hand VoIP suppliers say that they provide information rather than communications and should not be subject to the same charges and rates as traditional communications companies.

A 4G network which will make VoIP calling faster and easier is due to roll out in the UK in 2012.

Already industry regulator Ofcom has been auctioning off network space to Mobile VoIP companies.

Right now many companies use the 3G network to give internet access to their range of popular smartphones such as the Android and iPhone OS.

4G is expected to cover 95% of the UK’s mobile VoIP service and provide fast speeds, efficient service and low cost calls. It will offer a secure IP telephony solution for all mobile devices including smartphones and laptops.

The news is not so good for fixed line telecommunications companies which are fighting against the tide – last year saw one million less fixed line users. The way this trend is going the landline could be completely obsolete in two decades.

Although 4G phones will be expensive to start with they will gradually become more affordable. And even though fixed line calls may remain cheaper the convenience of mobiles makes then a preferable option for many consumers.

Expect a worldwide movement to 4G next year as even countries as far afield as Sri Lanka have discussed the possibility of a total roll out. Wherever in the world they are based the opportunities for mobile VoIP providers are endless.