Open source telephony community SIPfoundry has announced its sipXecs product is interoperable with Skype for SIP, and the companies are testing the product in a beta program. The Skype for SIP program promises to lower the cost of telephony because businesses can direct outbound calls through the sipXecs client using Skype credits.

Skype said integrating with an open-source IP PBX and supporting the SIP protocol show the company's commitment to providing cost savings to its customers.

"Achieving interoperability with Skype for SIP means it is now easy for companies that deploy the sipXecs IP PBX solution to route their outbound calls via Skype," Martin J. Steinmann, member of the board of directors at SIPfoundry, said in a statement. "The ability for the many companies around the globe that are already using a sipXecs IP PBX system to now get the many benefits which Skype for SIP delivers further enhances the ease-of-use and low total cost of ownership of our open source solution."

For more:
- see the TMC.net article here 

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Telecomms veteran Andy Berman has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of i2Telecom International.
The move follows a "transitional period" for the Atlanta-based company which has seen it shift priorities towards mobile applications and services.

In the space between Christmas and New Year, Sonus Networks pushed out a press release announcing a number of changes in how it is governed.  Hmm.

In the release, the Board of Directors said it has "undertaken measures designed to strengthen its corporate Governance policies."  The moves included the distribution of a proposal to declassify its Board at the 2009 annual stockholders meeting with exact details to be sent out in the future, the separation of the roles of Chairman and CEO, and the announcement of Ed Anderson's retirement from the board; Anderson had been a sitting board member for more than a decade.

Board member Howard Janzen has been appointed the non-executive Chairman of the Board effective immediately. Janzen has been a director since January 2006.

Normally, such measures wouldn't merit more than a footnote. Given the continued housecleaning CEO Richard Nottenburg has engaged in since being hired in May and the ongoing disputes with largest-investor Legatum Capital, you have to wonder if there isn't some deeper realpolitik going on, especially with an end-of-year announcement.

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