For the second year in a row, we are happy to announce that we were named to the INC 5000 list of fastest growing companies in the US. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the staff here at VoIP Supply and you, our customers, we were able to earn this honor once again.
If anyone is interested in a history lesson concerning the technology that drives our business, iLocus recently published a well written piece that will give you some historical perspective.
While it does not go into great depths to describe the core origins of voice over packet networks from a technical perspective, it does a great job of shedding light on ten companies who did the heavy lifting to bring the technology to where it is today, and may help you better understand where it is going.
Highlights include:
1 – The application that started it all, Internet Phone from VocalTec. VocalTec also brought us the very first IP>PSTN Gateway and the RAS gatekeeper element. Mad props!
2 – Level 3 pioneers the softswitch and ushers in the transition from H.323 to MGCP.
3 – ITXC articulates the wholesale model for VoIP and lays the foundation for QoS and interoperability.
4 – Sonus develops scalable IP Voice gateways.
5 – 3GPP drafts the IMS blueprint which directly promotes the proliferation of VoIP.
6 – Cisco created demand for VoIP in the Enterprise market and nurtured ATA/CPE development to support residential VoIP deployment.
7 – Skype shakes up the industry in many ways.
8 – Softbank BB serves as the first major test lab for residential VoIP.
9 – Nextone brings us distributed session border controller (SBC) architecture and SIP > H.323 internetworking.
10 – Spectralink brings mobility to VoIP.
Q: Dear Mr. Andrews, What is a DID?
A: The term “DID” stands for “Direct Inward Dial”, and describes a feature offered by traditional telephone operators. For example, my direct number at work “716-250-3402” is a DID number, which we essentially “rent’ from our provider. Telephony companies allocate a range of DID numbers within each local exchange and area code, and dole them out to their customers in much the same manner as one might be assigned an email address or a website domain. (i.e DID numbers are “unique”)
(more…)
Yesterday I wrote a post entitled, “Nokia Dumps VoIP” that highlighted the fact that Nokia had withheld the native Nokia SIP client, the one which has been present in the bulk of Nokia’s previous models, in two upcoming N series phones, the N78 and the N96. Apparently my focus on the fact that Nokia was dumping VoIP on these models struck a cord with Nokia’s PR firm, Communicano, as I was asked to more clearly present the fact surrounding this news.
Since I respect Andy and his team I would like to clearly present the facts from Nokia here, as well as my thoughts and some additional commentary from others within the space about this announcement so that you be the judge on what is really happening here.
Just received a new Beta product that Sangoma has developed called the U100, which is essentially a 2 Port, USB-based, Zaptel compliant FXO interface.
This new product allows you to integrate up to (2) analog POTS lines with an Asterisk based IP PBX or appliance, without the need to install a physical hardware PCI card. You simply attach the U100 to your server or appliance via the included USB cable, and from there install the device in a similar manner to a traditional TDM card, using Sangoma’s 3.5.X Beta Driver.
I have one of our engineers playing with the U100 this week, and will post a followup concerning the installation process and some real-world usage of the product. Stay tuned.
A few weeks ago I wrote a piece on ENUM, what it is, and why it is important to the continued development of VoIP.
Today the folks over at NerdVittles have an informative piece on how Asterisk users can leverage ENUM for toll-bypass, by way of Gizmo5’s (previously SIPPhone.com) ENUM peering agreements with a wide range of carriers, including:
Access One, Airadigm, Allegiance, Alltel, Cablevision Lightpath, Cat Communications, Cbeyond, Cellcom, Cellular Properties, Centennial Wireless, Choice One, Cincinnati Bell Wireless, Cinergy Communications, Cingular, CityNet, Cleveland Unlimited, Comcast Digital Voice, Commpartners, Conversent Communications, Cox Communications, CP Telecom, CTC Communications, Dobson Cell, Eureka, Globalcom, Heartland Communications, Illinois Valley, ITC Deltacom, LDMI, McLeod, Metro PCS, Mpower, Nationsline, Nextel, Nextera Communications, Paetec, RCN, Sprint PCS, Talk America, Telnet Worldwide, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Verizon Wireless, and XO.
Ward even includes some sample code on setting up a FreePBX trunk for Gizmo5. NerdVittles is a must read for anyone out there looking to keep their finger on the pulse of the Asterisk community.
Part 2
The need for surveillance solutions began roughly in 10,000 BC when rivaling tribes would pillage one another’s food stock in the night. Without exact evidence of the culprits, allegations and feuds would escalate out of control and give us the box office hits we enjoy today. The early theft prevention implemented during this time period and lasting up until the later 1900’s was the night watchmen.
During the 1970’s with the emerging trend of corporate business, fancy “bean counters”, and stringent budget guidelines a solution had to be devised to eliminate the financial liability of the night watchmen for a more efficient and accurate surveillance solution.
The CCTV or Closed Circuit Television Solution consists of 4 parts:
CCTV solutions are a string of security cameras run across the area to be surveillance using “Plug & Play cable” also known as Coax. The simplistic structure is run much in the same manner as our cable T.V. Images are carried from origin setup (surveillance camera) landing on a designated viewing screen (monitor) and recorded using a VCR (Very Classic Recording Device). With the use of an additional device called a “quad” a monitor may be used to display the images of 4 separate CCTV cameras simultaneously.
Although becoming outdated with the introduction of IP based deployments, CCTV solutions are still very popular due to existing infrastructure and current market costs of surveillance solutions across the board.
3 part series by Anthony Cafaro
Part 2
The need for surveillance solutions began roughly in 10,000 BC when rivaling tribes would pillage one another’s food stock in the night. Without exact evidence of the culprits, allegations and feuds would escalate out of control and give us the box office hits we enjoy today. The early theft prevention implemented during this time period and lasting up until the later 1900’s was the night watchmen.
During the 1970’s with the emerging trend of corporate business, fancy “bean counters”, and stringent budget guidelines a solution had to be devised to eliminate the financial liability of the night watchmen for a more efficient and accurate surveillance solution.
The CCTV or Closed Circuit Television Solution consists of 4 parts:
CCTV solutions are a string of security cameras run across the area to be surveillance using “Plug & Play cable” also known as Coax. The simplistic structure is run much in the same manner as our cable T.V. Images are carried from origin setup (surveillance camera) landing on a designated viewing screen (monitor) and recorded using a VCR (Very Classic Recording Device). With the use of an additional device called a “quad” a monitor may be used to display the images of 4 separate CCTV cameras simultaneously.
Although becoming outdated with the introduction of IP based deployments, CCTV solutions are still very popular due to existing infrastructure and current market costs of surveillance solutions across the board.
It looks like that for the near term the fairy tale relationship between Nokia and VoIP has ended. Om Malik first reported last week that the latest Nokia phones are shipping without the VoIP capabilities which once made them the darlings amongst the VoIP community. This development comes at an interesting time, seeing as Mobile VoIP services are gaining traction, which should full further sales of VoIP enabled/compatible phones.
4,000.
The number of products we currently carry.
10.
The number of emails I get from vendors any given day about adding a new product to VoIP Supply.
1.
The number of questions I ask when thinking about whether or not to add a product.
What is that question you ask?
“Do our customers need this product?”
There is a problem with that question though. How do I know what YOU really need, if I am not constantly asking YOU what it is that YOU need.
So I am going to put down my mind reading apparatus for a moment and ask you a simple question:
“What products should we add to VoIP Supply?”
I want to hear from YOU what products we should be adding to our product catalog, so leave me some suggestions in the comments and hopefully we can add that product (or product type) to our catalog.
After all, if you ask us to add it, it is probably because YOU need it…and we want to make sure we have everything YOU need for VoIP.
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