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11/01/2010 - See you at IT Expo

It's getting a little too cold in DC, so we thought we might take the publication to warmer climes next week. I plan to be down in Miami next week on Thursday and Friday for the IT Expo. I am looking forward checking out all the latest developments in IP communications on the show floor as well as covering any breaking news at the conference. I am also looking forward to seeing some the keynotes from Craig Walker at Google Voice, Jeffrey Rodman at Polycom, Christopher Dean at Skype and Danny Windam at Digium.

If you are headed to Miami next week for IT Expo and you are planning on breaking some big news--or just want discuss the industry--shoot me an email and let's see if we can meet up in the press room or on the show floor. -Mike

07/01/2010 - Digium and Aumtech Certify a Multi-Language Speech Recognition Server Solution with Asterisk

Digium and Aumtech, Speech and Computer Telephony Integration company, announced a partner relationship between the companies. According to them, Asterisk users now have a high-quality, low-cost Speech alternative, featuring server-based licenses that support 48+ ports of Automated Speech Recognition for less than the cost of one or two competitive ASR licenses.

Aumtech’s solution provides 48+ ports of multi-language speech recognition for the Asterisk platform with support for $1,975 per port.

19/10/2009 - IBM and Digium add Asterisk VoIP calling to Smart Cube

At Astricon last week, IBM and Digium announced an Asterisk-based phone system available on IBM's Smart Cube platform. Smart Cube is IBM's downloadable business platform aimed at small- and medium-sized businesses. The deal with Digium will offer Smart Cube users an IP PBX-based Asterisk business phone and other unified communications services that can be downloaded and installed in a half hour.

The Digium add-on has been customized to integrate directly with the Smart Cube platform allowing users to manage the phone system directly from the Smart Cube interface. Customers will rely on IBM directly for product support. According to Computer World, the Digium software will be sold in two sizes: $2,000 for 20 concurrent calls and $4,000 for 40 concurrent calls.

For more:
- read Computer World's story here
- read Voxilla's piece here

03/09/2009 - Skype for Asterisk Now Available

Digium, the Asterisk Company, and Skype announced the general availability of Skype for Asterisk.

Skype for Asterisk is an add-on channel driver for Asterisk-based PBX systems. The software is compatible with the free and open source Asterisk versions 1.4, 1.6 and AsteriskNOW, as well as the commercially licensed Asterisk Business Edition. It enables multiple concurrent Skype calls from a single Skype account, and supports both G.711 and G.729a calling.

01/09/2009 - Skype for Asterisk now available

As Skype acquisition rumors swirl, Digium, makers of the Asterisk open source PBX, announced the formal launch of Skype for Asterisk, a software load that will allow seamless access to Skype services using Asterisk PBXs. Skype for Asterisk, which was announced at AstriCon Sept. 25, 2008, has been in beta testing with more than 4,000 participants, according to Digium's Pete Engler. The product, which carries a one-time, per-channel license fee of $66, is now available for purchase at the Digium store.

Engler, product manager for strategic products for Digium, said the beta group included businesses and VARs that saw the integration of Skype for Asterisk as a way to lower costs while also improving functionality.

"We see this as being a product than can go into existing Asterisk deployments, but also allows VARs to build new Asterisk solutions," Engler said. "It will allow them to go into green field opportunities to companies that may not have considered an Asterisk box. Everyone you talk to is familiar with Skype, so it helps when a company may not be familiar with Digium or Asterisk."

Matthew Jordan, enterprise business development manager for Skype, said the integration with Asterisk IP PBXs brings a level of functionality to the Skype client that it doesn't have natively.

"I'll give an example: A website has a click-to-call button to enable a native Skype call, and a Japanese user initiates a session," Jordan said. "If the call is going to the Skype for Asterisk PBX, it routes the call via the Skype profile for that user, and serves up a Japanese menu immediately."

Work on the project was split evenly among developers at both companies, according to Engler. He said the level of interest in the beta offering made him think that the Skype for Asterisk offering will be well received.

03/03/2009 - eComm 2009: Skype announces royalty-free SILK "superwideband" voice codec

This afternoon at eComm 2009, Skype will formally announce that it is making its in-house developed SILK wideband voice codec available royalty-free. Yes, free, for incorporation into any third-party application or device.

By offering SILK broadly in a very "open way, royalty free" to any third party developer, Skype thinks it can "unlock one of the major obstacles in the migration from narrowband video," said Skype GM Jonathan Christensen.

SILK is designed as an Internet-specific speech codec able to work with variable bit rates. At its highest "superwideband" rates, it samples at 24 kHz, providing 12 kHz effective voice. It's designed to be scalable from 6 Kbps to 40 Kbps with very low delay, low CPU and memory consumption, and it's designed to be "very robust" for jitter and packet loss. The codec is written in fixed-point ANSI C, so it can run on basically any platform.

In comparison, the traditional PSTN delivers voice at an "effective bandwidth" of around 3 kHz - sometimes a lot less when you move to mobile phones and/or transcoding involved for long-distance transport. More recent "traditional wideband" codecs provide around 7 kHz effective bandwidth, with Skype's earlier codec delivering 8 kHz effective using 16 kHz sampling.

Christensen said SILK had been independently tested against other various popular codecs with "very favorable" results. Using MOS scores, SILK performed better than other codecs at various bit rates and every percentage of package loss.

More details on the announcement are expected to be unveiled at eComm this afternoon, including a list of supporting hardware and software partners, including incorporation into new devices. Digium, given its relationship with Skype and love of open source, is likely to be one of the supporting parties for the new codec.

10/02/2009 - Way to go Danny

By Carl Ford

I asked Digium CEO Danny Windham what I could do for him and what news he wanted me to promote. The answer was: "Could you tell people its not as bad out there as the media makes it out to be?"

Danny is right, as President Roosevelt said we have nothing to fear but fear itself, and in this economy, VoIP, which is a technology that saves money, should flourish. And I think it is flourishing!

I've heard stories about prepaid being on the rise, and, of course, the folks taking advantage of open source see opportunity. Additionally the VARs are out looking for SIP Trunking strategies now.

I was also watching as the battle between LTE and WiMAX totaled up over $40 B in purchasing power.

So the future has opportunities, but you have to find the time to talk about them. If you talk about the negatives, you may lose the opportunity for the ... opportunity.

Positive thinking seems like a real asset in times like these, but does it work? Well, I know it rarely hurts.

Right now it's easy to get lost in the negative. The reports of money being made off the politics of pork are tough not to watch. And there is glee in watching missteps and finding the flaws in others. A well-known anecdote is that everyone thinks poorly of Congress, but likes their representatives. Like Madame DeFarge, we stick to our knitting and don't see our part in the process. The truth is that many of the folks I respect the most in Telecom are coming into the executive branch this time around, so I have hope.

But as the fireman reminded me at the Fireman's breakfast, "If you watch too much of the sausage being made, you can't help but lose your appetite"

So join me in speaking to the positive and finding the light at the end of the tunnel.

Here is what I know. There is a lot of cash lying around looking for the right opportunities; there are a lot of companies looking to conserve cash. Building businesses that support these activities now will position well for the future.

Remember news is the past, to see the future you have to look ahead. And there we will find the way to go.

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