I've known about this announcement for a week or two, but couldn't really talk about it until this week. BT is one of the most forward-thinking services providers on the planet. Siemens is one of the real thought leaders in technology advancement. I believe this partnering will deliver some truly new and advanced service delivery offerings to their combined customers.

BT and Siemens to Deliver One-Stop Converged Communications Solution

Worldwide Relationship Brings Enterprises Centralized, Converged IP Communications

LONDON, UK and BOCA RATON, Fla. -- May 6, 2008 -- BT, one of the world's leading providers of networked IT services, and Siemens Enterprise Communications, one of the world's leading suppliers of Open Communications software and services for enterprises, have entered into a global sales agreement to offer a converged communications solution for large multinational enterprises. The solution aims at helping those enterprises reduce costs, remove complexity and risk, improve collaboration and enhance business processes. It achieves that by leveraging existing investments in currently separate voice and data infrastructures and offering a compelling transition path to a centrally managed IP-based communications platform.

The BT and Siemens converged communications solution enables enterprises to consolidate and converge their voice and data communications at their own pace, one site at a time if so required. They are able to migrate from an existing multi-technology environment to a centrally managed converged communications platform upon deployment. The solution offers a single service level agreement as well as a flexible pricing model with a single point of contact for end-to-end managed services.

This solution combines Siemens OpenScape* suite of communications software applications and OpenScale* services with BT's world class MPLS network.

The BT-Siemens relationship grew out of their shared experiences while handling several mutual engagements with major customers. This proven approach - deployed to thousands of users in industries ranging from finance to manufacturing - can help large enterprise CIOs solve one of the toughest IT challenges they face today.

"The dilemma for CIOs is that the demands of maintaining their existing IT infrastructures command so much of their budgets that little is left for true innovation," said Wu Zhou, Senior Analyst, IDC. "So while many if not most CIOs now recognize the clear advantages of IP-based converged communications, they cannot see how to get there without a lot of cost and complexity that can adversely impact the business."

The complementary portfolios of BT and Siemens Enterprise Communications are ideally suited to deliver a complete range of solutions and services including voice, data, telephony, mobility and collaboration applications.

"Through mergers and acquisitions, many of our customers have accumulated complex, usually multi-vendor voice and data infrastructures," said Chris Ainslie, vice president, systems integrators and channel partners, BT. "Our agreement with Siemens offers them a way to leverage their significant legacy investments while opening doors for greater collaboration, and better execution."

"This relationship provides a vehicle for large national and multi-national corporations as well as for large public organizations to implement sophisticated converged solutions globally," said Gerhard Otterbach, Chief Market Operations Officer (CMO) and Member of the Board at Siemens Enterprise Communications "It removes the complexity of separate vendor relationships in each country to manage the billing, customer service and technology integration challenges associated with a large-scale deployment while, at the same time, maintaining the value of their existing investment."

About BT
BT is one of the world's leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries. Its principal activities include networked IT services; local, national and international telecommunications services; higher-value broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, Openreach, BT Retail and BT Wholesale.

In the year ended 31 March 2007, BT Group plc's revenue was £20,223 million with profit before taxation of £2,484 million.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.

For more information, visit www.bt.com/aboutbt

About Siemens
Siemens AG (NYSE:SI) is one of the largest global electronics and engineering companies with reported worldwide sales of $107.4 billion in 2006. Founded 160 years ago, the company is a leader in the areas of Medical, Power, Automation and Control, Transportation, Information and Communications, Lighting, Building Technologies, Water Technologies and Services and Home Appliances. With its U.S. corporate headquarters in New York City, Siemens in the USA has sales of $21.4 billion and employs approximately 70,000 people throughout all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Eleven of Siemens' worldwide businesses are based in the United States. With its global headquarters in Munich, Siemens AG and its subsidiaries employ 480,000 people in 190 countries. For more information on Siemens in the United States: www.usa.siemens.com.

About Siemens Enterprise Communications
Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co. KG is one of the world's leading suppliers of Unified Communications technologies. The company's unique Open Communications approach to providing software, solutions and services for enterprises of all sizes enables business processes to be more productive, faster and more secure - with any device, network or information technology infrastructure. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Siemens AG with global headquarters in Munich.

For more information about Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co. KG, visit: http://www.siemens.com/open

*The OpenScape Unified Communication (UC) suite of applications operate in multi-vendor environments and integrate with complementary offerings from a variety of industry players. The OpenScale professional and managed services portfolio provides a global service infrastructure and delivers software based, UC services.

Note: OpenScale is a trademark, and Siemens, OpenScape, and HiPath are registered trademarks of Siemens AG or its subsidiaries and affiliates. All other company, brand, product and service names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

This release contains forward-looking statements based on beliefs of Siemens management. The words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "forecast," "expect," "intend," "plan," "should," and "project" are used to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the company's current views with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause the actual results to be materially different, including, among others, changes in general economic and business conditions, changes in currency exchange rates and interest rates, introduction of competing products, lack of acceptance of new products or services and changes in business strategy. Actual results may vary materially from those projected here. Siemens does not intend or assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
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Alcatel-Lucent Certifies OmniPCX Enterprise Application with Mediatrix Analog Gateways

Sherbrooke, QUEBEC, May 7, 2008 - Mediatrix Telecom, the leader in Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) access devices, gateways and branch connectivity, today announced that the Mediatrix 4100 and 2102 VoIP gateways have passed Alcatel-Lucent's interoperability tests and have received certification with Alcatel-Lucent's OmniPCX Enterprise communications platform.

The Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise is an integrated, interactive communications solution for medium-sized businesses and large corporations. The solution combines traditional telephone functions with support for Internet-based telephony and multimedia communication.

"Mediatrix now provides a certified solution for companies deploying Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise communication platforms," explained Andres Torres, PLM Manager for Mediatrix Telecom. "Customers will find in Mediatrix Analog Gateways the perfect match for performance, interoperability and security requirements in a VoIP solution."

Mediatrix Analog Products

• Mediatrix 2102: 2 analog FXS ports
• Mediatrix 4104: 4 analog FXS ports
• Mediatrix 4108: 8 analog FXS ports
• Mediatrix 4116: 16 analog FXS ports
• Mediatrix 4124: 24 analog FXS ports

The Mediatrix 4100 series provides a highly scalable and cost-effective analog solution for the Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise platform. It can be deployed in remote offices to provide analog connectivity for analog phones, faxes, and legacy key systems.

SOHO users can also make use of the Mediatrix 2102. It seamlessly integrates into the customer's existing home network, providing up to two analog lines for phone and fax machines linked to the headquarters' OXE.

About Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX
The Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise is an integrated, interactive communications solution for medium-sized businesses and large corporations. The solution combines traditional telephone functions with support for Internet-based telephony and multimedia communication.

The OmniPCX Enterprise provides a suite of unified communication applications, including a Web softphone, along with unified messaging and personal assistant applications. Based on a single software platform, the OmniPCX Enterprise is compatible with multiple operating systems, provides powerful communications servers and features an independent infrastructure.

About Mediatrix Telecom
Mediatrix develops and markets advanced VoIP access devices, gateways, routers and value-added software enhancements for the enterprise, SOHO, and residential markets. Its products provide an ideal migration path for end users wishing to protect their current CPE investment (analog/digital phones, fax machines, PBX and Key Systems) while migrating to a converged IP network. Mediatrix products and solutions are widely interoperable and have received commercial endorsement from some of the world's leading manufacturers of telecommunications equipment as well as from large telecommunication carriers. Mediatrix is a wholly owned Division of Media5 Corporation, a high technology company based in the Montreal area, in Canada. Media5 Corporation also owns M5T, a software provider focused on delivering the latest in SIP software technologies and security solutions to companies developing applications for real-time multimedia communications over IP. Mediatrix has corporate offices in the Sherbrooke area, in Canada and regional offices in the United States and Europe. For more information, please visit www.mediatrix.com.

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There's an interesting story making the rounds this morning, with some opposing views already being expressed.

Om Malik posted his findings and thoughts on an idea that's been gaining traction for a while in the dark hallways of the traditional telco world.

Global Telcos Plotting a Skype Rival?
AT&T, in conjunction with some 10-15 incumbent telecom carriers -- British Telecom, Deutsche Telecom and NTT among them -- is plotting to launch a Skype competitor, according to a research report issued this morning by ThinkEquity analyst Anton Wahlman.

This is Wahlman's theory for now, but his track record is full of theories that have eventually been proven right. For instance, he once issued a report that outlined 16 reasons why Cisco should buy Scientific Atlanta -- which the networking giant went on to do, for $6.9 billion. For that reason alone, I put in a call to AT&T to get the lowdown, but all they would offer was the boilerplate phrase, "We can't comment on this type of speculation."

Anyway, back to the Skype competitor! Essentially what Wahlman is saying is that incumbents are going to offer a VoIP client that will work on the incumbent broadband/3G wireless pipe, and will use a backend platform that will allow folks to make free voice calls to anyone who's logged into it.
[Read Om's full post]

In the past, carriers have
merely taken half-measures to address the voice-for-free problem. So this is radical new thinking: If voice is a losing business, why shouldn't the carriers cannibalize it themselves, then sell other services, including video? As Wahlman noted, "Robust data connection is the most valuable service the carriers sell."

Amen to that. I just find it hard to believe that the dinosaurs are finally getting jiggy with this new way of thinking.

While opinions do vary, I think Jim summed it up best, although, I agree with Jim for different reasons that he articulates. Here's what Jim said -

But, for all this saber rattling, isn't there a much simpler
solution that would get the telcos into the P2P voice space much
faster, especially since the basic innovation is already in place (and
probably protected under intellectual property registrations)? Maybe the telcos should simply license Skype's technology.
Nah, but that would cut out the intellectual property and litigation
lawyers' fees and investment bankers' commissions that would come from
having new players in the P2P voice game. (And maybe even take away the
need for research reports.)

For all its faults on the business and operations side, the Skype
ecosystem's technology is simply too far advanced for anyone to play
catch-up with any long term success. Look at aspects such as Skype's
current research and development on voice and video technology (if you
haven't installed Skype 3.8 for Windows, do it now) as well as the experience garnered in pioneering communications enhanced business processes by both Skype and its partners.

Yes, all the telcos' efforts are "much ado about nothing" -- especially when it comes to voice revenues. (Hat tip to William Shakespeare)

Saber rattling, yes. Absolutely. The telcos are hearing the message of Alec Saunders' Voice 2.0 Manifesto. But it's too little too late. The legacy telecom business is in a very slow death spiral. Some of the old incumbents will reinvent themselves in time to survice. Some will die a painful, ugly death. Voice services have changed forever, and will continue to change. They'll change and evolve more rapidly next year than last year. The speed of innovation and change is increasing.

The legacy telco industry isn't speedy. Hasn't been innovative in years. Is still trying to learn competition in the US after years of governmental sponsored monoply. Divestiture of the old Bell System was 24 years ago, yet the industry is, in many ways, just reaching 1990 in their cultural evolution.

On the other hand, I don't fully agree with Jim. While he's right about Skype from a technological standpoint, I don't think the faults on the business and operations side can be offset. Sure they do great voice and video technology, but Skype sucks at customer service. That's pretty widely known. And the eBay management team has proven their track record. So while the Skype technology innovators continue to improve, the business side continues to degrade.

Remember that the telecom industry wasn't built on the newest an most innovative technologies. Not for the last 50 years. Truly. The last really big innovation the big telcos delivered to customers was touch tone dialing, and that was just over 50 years ago. Everything else has been me too improvements built on the back of innovative small entrepreneurs. But the customer base, and huge revenue stream was built on the business and operations side of the equation. Skype's business and operations side can't handle the weight of the PSTN customer base. Not even close.

I think the real answer lies somewhere jsut across th horizon. Somewhere we can't quite see today. But it isn't coming from the legacy telcos and it isn't coming from Skype. They're both too ripe for disruption from unexpected quarters.

What we'll see is incremental, steady improvement from Skype, who's now become and incumbent. That's why they're ripe for disruption. And from the telcos? Marketing speak. Doubletalk. The spin doctors will spin their inability to deliver.

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My good friend Alec Saunders posted about AOL's latest announcement this morning.

AOL announces AOL OpenVoice API. CAVEAT DEVELOPER.

AOL announced Tuesday that it has opened the API to AIM Call Out, a move designed to let programmers more easily build products that tap into AIM for making calls over the net. The API is freely available, and applications built with it can let people call using AOL's network to bypass the ordinary telephony infrastructure.
[Read Alec's full post]

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Yesterday Skype launched the newest version of Skype, Skype 3.8 for Windows. According to all reports, and my own experience, this version of Skype sounds better than ever before. Given Skype's ongoing efforts to sound better than a phone call, that isn't suprising.

The main improvements can be found under the hood of the audio engine. In the real world, this translates to significantly reduced background noise, less delay, fewer call drops, and fewer cut-outs -- especially when both sides are using Skype 3.8 for Windows. And if you change your headset, headphones or microphone, there's no need to mess around with sound settings. That has proven to be a huge problem for me in the past, especially when using a USB headset. Skype 3.8 for Windows takes care of this behind the scenes...at last!

They've also done something for user friendliness that seems quite socially responsible.They've hidden the user's profile image in incoming authorization requests. Some people have been using offensive images, so Skype decided to put them behind a veil. You can still see the hidden avatar if you click on it, but no more objectionable images popping in your face without warning.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with the upgrade on my end.

Download Skype 3.8 for Windows at skype.com/go/download
Technorati Tags: Skype, VoIP

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Big congratulations to friends James Body and Dean Elwood and the entire Truphone team. They've been working hard for some time now and showing continual success and improvement. Truphone's recent acquisition of SIM4travel opened a whole new universe of potential for Truphone, and this investment shows that the VC community sees just how solid Truphone's approach is.

TRUPHONE RAISES £16.5M [$32.7M] IN SERIES B ROUND
New round to fund ongoing development of world's first global mobile operator

London, UK - 17^th April 2008 - Mobile internet network operator Truphone has raised £16.5m ($32.7m) of Series B venture capital funding.

The round was led by private investors, with all of Truphone's existing backers - Burda Digital Ventures, Eden Ventures, Independent News & Media and Wellington Partners - also participating.

Truphone is a global, mobile operator that enables free and low-cost mobile phone calls via the internet, offering dramatic value to customers. Through the recent purchase of SIM4travel, Truphone has also completed its GSM core network, which will enable it to offer low-cost GSM calls worldwide via a travel SIM.

With the additional funding available from the new round, Truphone plans to deliver on its vision of providing a killer combination of mobile cost and mobile convenience: a single, global SIM card that offers not only low call charges both domestically and abroad, but also internet calls at free and ultra-low prices.

"We aim to provide ultimate price and convenience, wherever you are. One world, one SIM," commented James Tagg, Truphone's CEO. "Beyond that, as a 'Voice 2.0' company we can start to develop and introduce new internet-based features and applications that give customers a richer mobile experience."

"The additional funding reflects the investors' belief in and understanding of this vision. The capital will enable us to structure and focus our business to ensure that everything we do contributes towards the achievement of our aims," he said.

John McMonigall, chairman of Truphone's Board of Directors, said: "As we enter the next phase of the Truphone revolution, the success of this financing round makes it clear that our investors recognise the business opportunity from convergence and disruption in the mobile space."

In December 2006, Truphone raised £12.5m ($24.5m) in Series A funding, believed to be the European technology sector's largest Series A venture funding of 2006.

The company has developed a carrier-grade, global operator infrastructure including a global network of SIP gateways, a Nokia Siemens Networks mobile network Home Location Register (HLR) and a GSM identifier. The infrastructure is capable of supporting 40 million customers worldwide.

This is all enabled by a series of global agreements with PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) and SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) providers.

For additional information, visit www.truphonepressoffice.com.

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Catching up on the news today, and there's quite a bit to see. Here's an announcement that caught my eye from my friends at Sigma Systems. They've shown some real leadership in a couple of key areas in the past year, and that's paying off as they cross the 1000 million threshold in service fulfillment. That's a significant number. Congrats to Sigma Systems.

Sigma Systems surpasses 100 million managed Quad-Play IP services globally, extending its market leadership position

Toronto, ON - April 16, 2008 - Sigma Systems (www.sigma-systems.com) today announced that its IP service fulfilment solution has surpassed managing over 100 million bundled IP services for communications service providers globally. The company's award-winning advanced IP service fulfilment solutions, which enable efficient delivery of new services such as VoIP, IPTV, mobile and broadband data services over any network technology to any device, continue to drive Sigma's success in well over 50 deployments worldwide.

"We are proud to be ensuring the highest levels of service fulfilment and satisfaction for our service provider customers who are, in turn, providing their own customers with an unprecedented service experience,"
said Tim Spencer, President and COO for Sigma Systems. "Our extensive market deployments in the IP service fulfilment space is bolstered by the strength of our solutions, the company's strong financial performance and our recognized expertise in IP service fulfilment. Sigma remains poised for continued and accelerating growth in the cable space and holds significant growth potential within the wireless, telco and satellite markets."

Sigma's customers include some of the largest service providers in the world, with more than 50 successful installations in North America, EMEA, CALA and AsiaPac. In addition, Sigma boasts the most widely deployed residential VoIP service management solution, with over six million lines of voice telephony deployed worldwide.

"The broadband IP services market will grow 18% CAGR through 2011 according to OSS Observer's Communications Service Provider Market Review, September 2007. Cable MSOs and telcos alike are increasing their investments in service fulfilment for both commercial and residential services," said Larry Goldman, Founder and Senior Analyst at OSS Observer. "With its triple play deployment history, Sigma Systems is well positioned to capitalise in these market segments."

"We see three key trends affecting the requirements for IP service fulfilment platforms within the service provider market," adds Sigma's Tim Spencer. "The number of services is exploding in this everything-on-demand (X-OD) application environment. People are accessing services and content with a wide range of devices. Thirdly, two-sided-business models and the supporting enablers that allow service providers and their partners the freedom to roll out a broad range of IP Services are paramount to their collective long-term success."

A privately held company, Sigma is debt-free, profitable and has achieved an annual growth rate averaging 46% for the past four consecutive years.

About Sigma Systems
Sigma Systems (www.sigma-systems.com) is the proven global leader in delivering advanced IP service fulfilment solutions. Sigma's powerful OSS solutions enable the world's Communications Service Providers (CSPs) to deliver any service, over any access technology to any device. The company's award-winning software solutions include products for the fulfilment of Triple, Quad and All-Play services - defined as "New Services...Delivered".

Sigma is a pioneer of Applications Enablement where new services and applications can be rapidly and efficiently enabled in a single system.

Enablement includes service orchestration - where subscriber policy management, authorisation and entitlement processes, and business rules are managed and openly available for real-time service fulfilment.

Sigma's heritage includes over 12 years of proven solution delivery experience in multi-service, multi-technology operating environments.

Today, Sigma manages 50 deployments for CSPs with a combined total of approximately 100 million IP services deployed worldwide.

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Recently I had the chance to look over a case study of a Junction Networks solution deployed with Brighter Planet. You can read that writeup here.



This morning I had the chance to chat with Michael Oeth from Junction Networks and Seamus Abshere from Brighter Planet about this implementation. Please join me and listen in to our conversation.

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Improving the audio quality of voice calls is becoming increasing important as a competitive differentiator. Many solution providers are aiming at quality improvement through high density (HD) or wideband codecs. The difference on a VoIP call is very noticeable to the human ear.

Yesterday Polycom news announced this at: http://polycom.com/usa/en/company/news_room/press_releases/2008/20080408.html

One intriguing aspec of the Polycom announcement is that when callers use the new Polycom phones with ZipDX audio conferencing service, they can conduct the calls in HD Voice/wideband audio. ZipDX is the only conferencing service currently on the market that enables this feature and allows owners of these new phones to maximize the features on their phones.

ZIPDX ADVANCED CONFERENCING SERVICE SUPPORTS NEXT-GENERATION CONFERENCE PHONES FEATURING HD VOICE

ZipDX Leverages Wideband Audio to Maximize HD Voice Technology on Polycom's New SoundStation IP 6000 and 7000 Conference Phones

LOS GATOS, CALIF. - April 8, 2008 - ZipDX, the only audio conferencing service offering standards-based wideband audio, today announced interoperability and full support for Polycom's SoundStation® IP 6000 and SoundStation IP 7000 with Polycom HD VoiceTM technology. Polycom, the world's leading provider of unified collaborative communications solutions, launched the breakthrough conference phones this week.

ZipDX recently completed beta testing among small and mid-sized enterprise customers who used the service with the SoundStation IP 6000 and IP 7000 conference phones.

Merit Games has been a ZipDX customer since October 2007 and participated in the beta program. "I never realized how valuable wideband audio was until I was able to experience it on my Polycom phone through ZipDX," said Michael Maas, CEO of Merit Games. "With HD Voice, there's less repetition and fewer misunderstandings. I've found our calls to be more productive overall. In addition, my team really appreciates a number of other ZipDX features that we haven't seen with other services. Excuses about misplacing codes and losing track of time are gone; our conferences start promptly."

The ZipDX system can work with the IP 6000 and IP 7000 in conjunction with an IP-PBX, or in a "ZipDX stand-alone" mode for those businesses that have not yet transitioned to VoIP, but want the benefits and outstanding user experience of high-performance voice conferencing.

ZipDX designed its Conferencing 2.0 audio collaboration service to maximize the capabilities of Polycom's phones and incorporate additional features to enhance usability and productivity for Polycom customers, including a call dashboard on the conference phone display area.

"SoundStation IP 6000 and 7000 models set a new bar for conference phone performance," said Chalan Aras, vice president of marketing for Polycom's voice communications solutions division. "The ZipDX service is the perfect complement to these devices. Conference calls conducted using ZipDX in combination with our next-generation conference phones and existing HD Voice desktop phones deliver an unmatched user experience that leverages the wideband audio performance of Polycom HD Voice for astounding clarity and recognition."

About Wideband Audio
Wideband audio encodes twice as much speech information as traditional, or narrowband, audio. Wideband-audio phones capture both the deeper lows and higher frequencies of the human voice to deliver crystal clear sound quality. It is an invaluable tool for conferencing, where it is often a challenge to identify speakers with similar voices, understand accented speakers, overcome background noises and hear faint talkers. For more information, visit HDVoice.tmcnet.com/.

About ZipDX
ZipDX is an advanced audio collaboration service that solves problems common with traditional phone conferencing services and enhances the productivity of business conferences. With a suite of features that includes patented auto-identification of call-in participants and integration with web-based calendaring systems, ZipDX is a premium conferencing service that creates valuable solutions for conference callers. In addition, ZipDX is the only service in the market that supports standards-based wideband audio available today for users of Polycom HD VoiceTM products and select VoIP-based systems. For more information, visit www.ZipDX.com.

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My friend Luca's post this morning caught my eye straightaway.

Is Ooma heading to the deadpool?

I was not surprised today when I read this article by Valleywag. Ooma, the VoIP service much discussed in the past months over the blogsphere, seems to be in trouble and many VP are leaving the company. Even their PR agency is not representing them anymore.

Ashton Kutcher-backed startup Ooma is falling apart

Hold the phone: Voice-over-Internet startup Ooma is flailing, despite -- or perhaps because of -- a viral-video marketing campaign directed by Hollywood star Ashton Kutcher. Ooma launched its product, a $400 device which offers unlimited phone calls, last year, with a splash of press. Starstruck tech bloggers like TechCrunch's Michael Arrington gave away Ooma gadgets to readers in exchange for some facetime with Kutcher -- and asked few questions about its nonsensical business model, which had it charging high upfront prices for hardware and giving away phone service. Now, we're told, its high-school-dropout CEO, Andrew Frame, has seen a host of executives leave.

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