Products and service that carry voice over an Ip connection
Phone services offering freebie calls over the Internet are still only being used by a niche following according to new research.
A study by Ofcom has discovered that Voice- Over-Internet- Protocol (VoIP) services – like those offered by Skype, BT and Tesco – have failed to fire the public imagination.
(more…)
Samsung have announced two 22″ monitors with a mic and 2mpx video camera built-in.
All that is needed to get going with the top of the range, 220TN, is an Internet- connected Ethernet cable in the back as all of the required software is installed.
They say that it’s been optimised for Microsoft Unified Communication (UC).
(more…)
Some Skype users faced a frustrating weekend after a software bug left many unable to log in to the Internet phone service.
The sign on problem surfaced early Thursday afternoon (August 16th), with the company’s blog reporting a software issue. At the same time, Skype temporarily disabled all downloads of Skype.
(more…)
Skype, clearly never ones to stay still, have released a new version of the PC Skype client – version 3.5.
It comes with four new features
(more…)
BT are to offer those who sign up for their Business Broadband Voice service – VoIP to you and me – an option of having a local phone number connected to it. At a charge, naturally.
BT is calling the service “Geographic Numbers”, ie what you’d normally have if you had a landline phone line from them.
(more…)
Ofcom has published a proposal that some VoIP services should allow users to call 999 to connect to emergency services as soon as by early 2008.
They’ve carried out research that has revealed that as many as 78% of those with VoIP thought that they could, or did not know if they could.
Ofcom’s concern is that VoIP users cannot connect to emergency services when they really need it – ie. in an emergency.
If people have to locate a landline or mobile phone, costing them a delay of seconds or minutes in getting through to emergency services, it could prove critical.
(more…)
Sony and BT have just signed a four year deal to extend the function of the Sony PSP to have it act as a Wi-Fi video and voice ‘softphone’.
We’ve been digging a bit as the initial information offered by BT was sketchy to say the least.
(more…)
If you’re a user of Skype-Out, the service that lets you call landlines from Skype, you may have come across a peculiar reaction when you’ve dialed people abroad. Our experience has ranged from puzzlement to down-right bewildered, “Where’s dialing code 0000 from?”
This should change for some lucky Skype-out customers, now they’ve released Caller ID on it.
Once you’ve changed you configuration, the Skype-out number will be set to show your Skype-In number – hurrah.
Not all countries are covered, but the lucky ones are currently the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Japan, Hong Kong, Estonia and Poland. Countries that aren’t covered _may_ come on soon, after Skype’s “legal people continue to be busy working with our partners and governments.”
Ofcom have just announced a new regulatory code for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers operating in the UK.
With predictions estimating that there could be as many as three million VoIP users in the UK by the end of this year, Ofcom clearly felt it was time to set some base rules for the industry to adhere to.
They’re broadly divided in two – prescribed information to tell the consumer before they sign up and once they have signed up, making them aware of the limitation of their access to the emergency services.
For a long time the lack of solid emergency (999) number access has been used by the incumbent telecos to try and stem the growth of VoIP. Their argument? If someone calls 999, there is no assured way of telling if that person is calling from Basildon, Birmingham, or Beijing, as the handset just needs to be on an IP connection, to attached to the end of a specific piece of wire, like a landline is.
Before June 2007, all VoIP providers will be required to make it clear :-
If a customer decides to sign up for a VoIP service, the provider has additional obligations around emergency calls:-
Nokia has officially announced that they have made Skype available to run on the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet.