Ellen Muraskin

Ive been meaning to bring Zultys Technologies, another IP PBX vendor, to readers attention. Iain Milnes, the president of the Sunnyvale startup, gave me the final push in an interview late last week. Zultys has been around since 2001. Its flagship Enterprise Media Exchange MX 250, launched July 2003, is an all-in-one IP PBX and […]

Toshiba America Information Systems, whose Digital Solutions Division holds a prominent spot in the SMB (small-to-midsize business) phone systems market, has announced two new IP phones in advance of its first native IP phone system. Toshibas IPT2010-SD and IPT2020-SD phones work with the current Strata CTX switch, a PBX that can be IP-enabled through optional […]

SBC Communications announced Sept. 21 that it has won a contract to build a converged voice-and-data network for Ford Motor Co. The planned three-year deployment, which represents the largest VOIP deal yet for the RBOC (regional Bell operating company), includes design, resale, installation and ongoing, on-site management of Cisco IP phones and clustered Cisco Call […]

Lingo, the consumer-scale VOIP service of Primus Telecommunications Inc., has upped the ante one more time by launching an all-you-can-dial plan that includes Asian countries. The announcement follows its June offer of unlimited $19.95-per-month calling to North America and Western Europe, and its August offer of DID (direct inward dial) numbers from international cities, including […]

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on Tuesday begins a three-day hearing on the regulation of VOIP (voice over IP) services, finding itself at a crossroads familiar to the parallel organizations of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and the European Commission. A total of 33 parties, including major, incumbent Canadian telcos Bell Canada Enterprises Inc. […]

Cisco Systems Inc. announced Monday that it will buy SIP infrastructure provider Dynamicsoft Inc., which has been instrumental in developing the SIP (session initiation protocol) VOIP signaling protocol and its attendant network servers. The deal represents Ciscos second VOIP acquisition in as many months. The company bought P-Cube Inc., based in Sunnyvale, Calif., in late […]

I attended my fifth or sixth SpeechTEK expo in New York on Monday, this time early enough to catch the 8:30 a.m. keynote. Steve Mills, senior vice president of the IBM Software Group, announced IBMs intention to foster the “speech development ecosystem” by offering up IBMs RDCs (reusable dialog components) as open source through the […]

The VOIP deployment of the Borough of Manhattan Community College was planned to start as a 50-phone trial, thrown as an accessory project into a large network conversion. When Sept. 11 took out the neighborhoods Verizon central office, that pilot turned into the colleges emergency phone system. Today, the trial IP PBX and phones have […]

The United Kingdom telecommunications industry regulator on Tuesday unveiled its plans for Internet telephony, which include setting aside a phone area code specifically for VOIP calls. In a prepared statement, Stephen Carter, U.K. Office of Communications chief executive sounded very much like a U.S. Federal Communications Commision administrator by saying that since broadband services are […]

Homestead, Fla., made news on Aug. 24, 1992, as the community hardest hit by Hurricane Andrew. Just south of Miami, its residents certainly hope to stay out of the spotlight this week, as Frances hits. Some IP infrastructure players, however, would like to direct our attention precisely there, because this city of 32,000 directed a […]