Skype is taking another step forward with Verizon and expanding the Skype mobile application onto a variety of Multimedia 3G phones with an app based on the BREW platform, including the LG enV TOUCH, LG Chocolate Touch and Samsung Reality.

snom announced that IPsmarx, maker of the IPsmarx’s Multi-Tenant IP-PBX Platform, has joined snom’s partner program as an Advanced Technology Partner. According to the companies, the combination of snom’s desktop phones with IPsmarx’s IP-PBX provides service providers who cater to small and medium sized businesses, as well as larger global enterprise businesses, “a complete and affordable advanced IP telephony system.”

IPsmarx announced that it has added German IVR language as an option to its Calling Card Platform, making 13 total IVR language options to choose from.

“VoIP penetration among businesses is increasing rapidly, but I believe that reliability and redundancy can still be improved. Many service providers have not yet implemented redundancy to improve reliability,” said Arash Vahidnia, President and CEO of IPsmarx, in an interview with VoIP.Biz-News.com. 

JAJAH, the IP communications company, is working with Microsoft to provide SIP Trunking services to Microsoft enterprise customers globally. According to the firm this will allow companies to make high quality voice calls over JAJAH's IP Platform in the cloud, without requiring an infrastructure upgrade.

JAJAH has been chosen as the IP platform for online dating sites Match.com and eHarmony.
The expansion of JAJAH's platform to service the rapidly growing online dating industry gives users the ability to talk, SMS and leave voice messages for prospective partners, while keeping their personal details private.

WCell International has announched that its VoIP calling platform is now available for download on a variety of mobile operating systems, including BlackBerry, Java, Windows Mobile and Symbian.
The Hong Kong-based application for mobile devices is awaiting approval by Apple for listing in the iPhone App Store.

GENBAND and BroadSoft announced GENBAND's G9 and G6 gateways and S3 session border controller will be integrated with BroadSoft's BroadWorks VoIP application platform for carriers migrating from TDM to IP telephony systems. The companies said the new offering will allow carriers to deliver Class 4 and 5 VoIP services and applications on a single system, all while continuing to support legacy features.

The new offering also provides options to carriers like hosted unified communications and fixed-mobile convergence support, according to the companies. 

For more:
- see the Light Reading article here 

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Voxbone will provide local access number support for Nimbuzz, the mobile communications platform, the companies announced Tuesday. Nimbuzz users can now make mobile VoIP calls without 3G or WiFi connectivity by dialing the Voxbone DID number the Nimbuzz application automatically supplies for the user. Users incur a small charge to call the local access number, rather than incurring roaming fees, making the DID addition an extra cost-saving feature on the Nimbuzz application, which is downloaded 750,000 times per month, according to the company.

For more:
- see the press release here

JAJAH CEO Trevor Healy talks to voip.biz-news about the "sea change" currently taking place in the communications industry - and explains how that has resulted in JAJAH itself evolving from a consumer VoIP focus to become a global IP communications platform provider.

Voxeo, a unified communications service provider, announced it acquired IMified, a hosted instant messaging application platform. Terms of the transaction were not released.

IMified is Voxeo's third acquisition in the past 12 months, and it gives Voxeo a platform API to communicate with any IM network or platform, according to the company. The IMified platform lets users build new IM applications without having to worry about interoperability with other proprietary IM solutions, and it also allows for IM functionality to be added to other, existing applications.

IMified claims that more than 7,500 developers currently use its platform for IM customer service bots, package tracking, emergency notifications and customer surveys, among other uses.

"Instant messaging is a natural extension to voice self-service and is an important piece of any company's unified communication strategy," said Jonathan Taylor, Voxeo's president and CEO, in a prepared statement. "IMified significantly expands Voxeo's unified communications offerings with the world's largest IM application platform and most experienced development team."

Voxeo said all IMified employees have been retained and that it will not modify terms of service for IMified users or developers. 

For more:
- see the press release here

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Mobivox has announced an agreement to make its voice-activated mobile services platform the engine for the VoIP-services component of a new global online e-wallet system called WorldAxxess.
Under the agreement, MTC Telecom plans to use Mobivox-powered international long-distance services to attract customers and build revenue for MTC's new WorldAxxess micropayments business.

Mobile VoIP and IM provider fring announced Thursday it has received a Series C round of funding from previous investors, but did not specify the amount of the investment, only saying it was"significant." fring is attempting to meld VoIP service with social media and IM, allowing users to aggregate data from Facebook and Twitter, while also offering Skype, MSN, GoogleTalk, Yahoo!, and AIM in a central user interface.

The company plans to use the funding round to continue to add support for communications platforms and devices, and to add other features.

"With this new funding round we will accelerate the realization of our ongoing commitment to make fring even more accessible, relevant and easy to use, therefore reducing practical barriers for mainstream users as well as third-party developers and partners who have expressed continued interest in fring and the fring platform," said Avi Shechter, fring co-founder and CEO, in a statement. 

For more:
- see the press release here 

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Blueslice Networks has sold a SIP-enabled ngHLR, HSS and AAA, bundled into one fully integrated solution, to Unify Mobile.
The SDM platform is to be used by in&phone, one of its mobile operations in Switzerland.
Montreal-based Blueslice's CSP 3000 includes the ngHLR and its Advanced Low Cost Roaming solutions - giving in&phone the ability to offer subscribers new roaming features.

Mobile VoIP operators are realizing the need to differentiate their offerings from pure voice to other services in the down economy. GigaOM mentions three specific mobile VoIP companies, iSkoot, mig33, and truphone, as examples of this trend.

The three companies have raised more than $100 million in VC capital combined, so they have decent runways to design and bring to market their additional services. Mobile VoIP is a commoditized market, with slim margins that don't bode well for small start-ups with a lot of debt.

iSkoot is betting that consumers who want the communications features of a smart phone without paying the hefty price will opt instead for the suite of features it's bundling for plain mobile phones, called Notifier. Notifier combines Gmail and Facebook access with an RSS reader, so users can keep up with news and social network happenings on their old-school mobile device. iSkoot originally focused on selling a Skype solution for AT&T customers, but it's difficult to get the carriers to play nice with Skype at all, which necessitates a move to other market segments in search of real profitability.

Truphone, on the other hand, has already begun branching out its services to include Twitter, Skype and other communications platforms. It's already one of the most popular VoIP applications on the iPhone, and it is looking to capitalize on its position with additional services, in addition to its out-bound call revenue.

The last of the three, mig33, is a mixed mobile VoIP and virtual goods company, which is very popular in Southeast Asia. It also offers an iPhone communications app, which melds a bunch of IM clients with Skype functionality. In the next six months, it is focusing most of its attention on its virtual goods offering. This market has proven to be lucrative on social networks, and mig33 is hoping it proves to be so on mobile devices as well. 

For more:
- see the Gigaom piece here 

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Microsoft has awarded fring's mobile VoIP application its “Designed for Window Mobile” certification.
The approval is the latest for fring, which has been working to develop its popular IM/ VOIP application for different platforms.

Devoteam is to release a Blackberry version of its VoIP client OnePhone that runs on mobile platforms enabling voice calls over an IP network.
It is expected to be available for the RIM handset in the first quarter of 2009.
OnePhone is a SIP-based, dual mode GSM-WiFi solution that is able to interwork with public and private WiFi hot spots, and with mobile networks.

iSkoot has announced that its mobile application, iSkoot for Skype, is launching in the Android Market.
It is the first VoIP solution available on Google’s new mobile application store.
Available immediately for download, iSkoot for Skype also runs on nearly all major mobile platforms, including J2ME, S60v3, UIQ, Palm, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry.