Free :: VoIP Biz-News.com

Number of results 17 for free

12/04/2012 - Skype tops 40M concurrent users for new record

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) subsidiary Skype hit 40 million concurrent users this week, the most users that have ever been signed on to the VoIP service at the same time, the company said.

The mark eclipses the 32 million users that were on the service simultaneously in February (not to mention the 34 million and 35 million user mark it anounced over the past several weeks).

Microsoft acquired Skype last year for $8.5 billion, causing some angst among users at the time worried that the deal would radically change how the company does business. And, to a degree, it has, it's raised awareness of Skype's features.

The company earlier this month launched a $12 million ad campaign in the United States and the United Kingdom aimed at highlighting the multiple features of the free VoIP offering. It focuses on "big, bold statements to grab people's attention and get them to think about how they communicate."

The campaign features billboards with messages like, "When did it become OK to text Mum happy birthday?" and "140 characters doesn't equal staying in touch." The company said it's focusing on the U.S. and U.K markets because the two markets are mature and important to Skype's growth.

A digital ad campaign also will debut April 19 on sites like CNN, BBC, Facebook, Lonely Planet, AOL, Yahoo, Wired, MSN, The Daily Mail, iVillage, CBS and Hulu.

For more:
- see the blog post

02/04/2012 - $12M ad campaign planned to raise awareness of Skype's other features

It looks like Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is starting to push for its $8.5 billion purchase of Skype last year to start paying dividends.

Skype is rolling out a $12 million ad campaign in the United States and United Kingdom aimed at raising awareness of the multiple features of the free VoIP offering and focuses on "big, bold statements to grab people's attention and get them to think about how they communicate."

"A lot of people have great stories to tell about using Skype with friends and family, but they often see us as a one-dimensional product," said Francie Strong, Skype's director of global customer-base marketing. "We're proud of our video calls, but we also want them to know about our other products: screen-sharing, group video, file transfer, instant messaging, calls to mobile and landlines. The combination of features allows a more natural conversation."

The ad campaign will start with billboards with messages like, "When did it become OK to text Mum happy birthday?" and "140 characters doesn't equal staying in touch." The company said it's focusing on the U.S. and U.K markets because the two markets are mature and important to the company.

A digital ad campaign will debut later this month on sites like CNN, BBC, Facebook, Lonely Planet, AOL, Yahoo, Wired, MSN, Mailonline, iVillage, CBS and Hulu. Its focus will be more on the features that Skype offers.

Strong said the campaign also will target people who've downloaded the service but don't use it.

ComScore said Skype had 12.5 million unique visitors in February, up 3.3 million from a year ago.

Speculation about how Microsoft would integrate the service into its product line has been rampant but, so far, the software giant hasn't done much new with its acquisition.

For more:
- see this AdAge blog
- see this Marketing article

08/03/2012 - LogMeIn adds free VoIP to its join.me screen sharing service

Virtual platform provider LogMeIn (Nasdaq:LOGM) has added VoIP conferencing to its free online screen sharing service, join.me.

The upgrade, which also is free, will allow quick, ad-hoc collaboration from virtually anywhere in the world, the company said. The service can be used from PCs, Macs, iPads, and iPhones.

Users can include a whopping 250 friends, colleagues or customers in a meeting; it requires no registration or additional downloads.

Join.me works on any PC or Mac via a web browser or a desktop app, as well as on the iPhone and iPad via a free app. The new free VoIP features will be added for Android devices in the near future, the company said.

Join.me pro--a monthly subscription service--gives users unlimited domestic and international conference lines, as well as the ability to have sessions that blend the VoIP and the teleconference lines into a single conversation and get on-screen muting and chime controls to better manage participation.

The company said VoIP has been "one of the most requested features" from users of join.me.

Parent LogMeIn reported better than forecast adjusted fourth quarter earnings and revenue marks last month, but issued a weak outlook for the first quarter. The company said revenue increased 5 percent to $32.3 million from $30.9 million reported in the fourth quarter of 2010, beating analyst expectations of $32.1 million. Michael Simon, president and CEO of LogMeIn, said the company was benefiting from increased consumerization of the space.

In January, LogMeIn acquired Bold Software, a provider of web chat and customer communications software, in what the company said was part of a larger strategy to expand LogMeIn's portfolio of call centers, external help desks and customer service teams. The move strengthens LogMeIn's customer care product portfolio by adding a well-known provider of live chat and click-to-call services. Under the terms of the deal, LogMeIn acquired substantially all of the net assets of Bold Software for total consideration of approximately $16.5 million in cash.

For more:
- see this release

02/02/2012 - RTX launches new cordless Skype phone

RTX is rolling out a new cordless Skype phone that doesn't require a user to be physically connected to a PC to make a VoIP call.

The DUALphone 4088 simply requires a broadband connection to its base station in order to make Skype calls.

The Danish company said its DUALphone 4088 simply requires a broadband connection to its base station in order to make Skype calls free of charge to other Skype users or have the choice of conventional paid-for landline calls worldwide.

The company's CEO, Jesper Mailind, said the phone "offers consumers a unique way to use Skype."

"We believe there is a growing demand for dual phones from the existing 170 million Skype account holders," he said, adding that the phone also will provide a business opportunity for resellers.

Telecom market research firm TeleGeography recently said international use of Skype was increasing, growing 48 percent in 2011, to 145 billion minutes.

The RTX features a color TFT screen and uses of high definition audio. The phone system can switch between two separate Skype accounts and can be extended to four handsets per household. Standard features including call waiting, voicemail and a phone contact list of 200 numbers that have been enhanced by software to show the Skype status of the user and all contacts.

For more:
- see this release

12/11/2010 - Freescale Introduces Comprehensive Solution for Multi-Service Business Gateways

Freescale has introduced a comprehensive silicon and software solution for the rapid creation of multi-service business gateway (MSBG) equipment combining services such as data, security, voice and fax. Based on the QorIQ P1020 processor, the solution integrates Freescale’s VortiQa Security Application Software and D2 Technologies’ embedded vPort VoIP software, as well as virtualization support from Green Hills Software.

05/11/2010 - IPsmarx Announces Completion of Interoperability Testing with 360networks

IPsmarx has announced a referral arrangement with 360networks, a full service wholesale provider of Private Line Transport, VoIP, IP, and Local Access (T1/DS3) services on its wholly-owned fiber optic backbone. Through this arrangement IPsmarx will recommend 360networks’ IP and Toll Free Origination services to complement IPsmarx Class 5 and IP-PBX Solutions.

18/10/2010 - Pinger Aims to Bring Free Voip to iPod Touch and iPhone

Pinger, a startup based in San Jose, California, aims to challenge Skype (and others) by offering free voice calls. They are doing so by piggybacking voip on their hugely popular TextFree application, which allows sending free text SMS messages. Pinger is currently serving 1.2 billion ads and sent 4 billion messages each month and is only expected to raise its numbers.

28/04/2010 - TalkFree Launches PickRoute VoIP Termination Service

TalkFree, an international VoIP carrier, has launched PickRoute, an A-to-Z VoIP termination service for small and medium-sized businesses and resellers already utilizing a VoIP switch or IP PBX.

14/07/2009 - VoxOx Improves VoIP Freeware

VoxOx is offering new freeware that comes with a Personal Assistant feature that includes call recording, call forwarding, call routing, and call screening.
The multi-protocol messaging and VoIP communication client also has expanded social-networking features and stronger back-end support.

23/06/2009 - ooma raises $14M

VoIP device maker ooma announced a $14 million round of funding led by Worldview Technology Partners, which has invested in ooma before. Previous investors were reportedly bought out in the funding round, according to TechCrunch.

ooma, which makes the Scout and Hub VoIP calling boxes, launched in 2007 with the same "buy this box, pay nothing for phone service" pitch it has now, but saw little success early on due to customer confusion over total cost of ownership. Then ooma brought in Rich Buchanan, architect of the Sling Box's early success, as CEO, and the company cut prices and soon forged distribution deals with Best Buy and RadioShack that have brightened the company's chances of profitability.

The company also distinguished itself by promoting a premium offering with additional features that generates subscription revenues to augment the device sales.

For more:
- see the TechCrunch post on ooma's funding here

03/06/2009 - Sipgate Launches VoIP Assault on US Landline Market

Sipgate has launched a free VoIP service in the US aimed at capturing a share of the 100 million users that make up the landline market.
Called sipgate one, the new internet-based service uses a VoIP phone - or softphone - and offers a fully-featured service.

30/04/2009 - Fring Targets Mainstream Users With New Funding

VoIP start-up fring has announced that it intends to accelerate its growth plans after completing a third round of funding.
Avi Shechter, fring co-founder and CEO, said a key objective is to make the free VoIP and IM service easier to use for mainstream "fringsters".

12/03/2009 - Google Launches Free Voice Service

Google today launched a free service in the US called Google Voice that gives users access to all their phones, voicemail and text messages through one phone number.
The move is being seen as a threat to Skype - but also to telecom operators and technology firms.

22/02/2009 - FreeSWITCH IP PBX update

On Thursday, the FreeSWITCH programming team announced the release of version 1.0.3. Most of the 127 items in the new version are "bug fixes, tweaks and improvements," but there are some new things in the latest version as well.

New features include a module for real-time debiting of cash/credits while calls are in progress, a least-cost-routing module that can operate as a true dialplan or a dialplan application from a command line, and implementation of the Opal open phone abstraction library. The Opal module supports H.323 and IAX2.

An event socket library (ESL) wrapper has been created for enabling a standardized means of communicating with FreeSWITCH through the event socket. Supported languages are Lua, Perl, PHP, Python, and Rub, and FreeSWITCH provides examples written in Perl and PHP on its site.

Other enhancements include the addition of channel variables to the dialplan for more control of dialing and handling of call results, including a variable for failure causes, setting an instant ringback tone flag, and one for monitoring earlier media for failure conditions.

For more:
- Read the official blog update here.

23/12/2008 - C2Call Unveils Updated Browser-based Service

C2Call has launched a second beta of its computer-to-computer service that allows free calls around the world.
The German startup also introduced new APIs - software tools that enable social media sites to add browser-based voice calls to any Web site.

23/12/2008 - Fortify Warns Of VoIP Hacking Risk Over Holidays

It's not exactly a message of festive goodwill but Fortify Software's warning about the threat of fraudulent VoIP international calls is no doubt well intended.
Citing a recent case where a hacker ran up a USD $52,000 phone bill, the application vulnerability specialist said it was a timely warning to all organisations to protect their PBX IT resources.

05/12/2008 - SPOTLIGHT: iPod Touch gets Truphone VoIP

Truphone can now be found on the iPod Touch - the iPhone without the 3G wireless connectivity on it. iPod Touch users can tap into the WiFi connection to download Truphone's free software from Apple's App Store, then start dialing away with VoIP to make free voice calls to other iPod Touch users, Truphone customers, and Google Talk IM clients. Free calls to Skype and MSN users will be added later. Users can also set up a paid account and make calls to landline or cell phones, or send SMS text messages.

A headset is required, and Truphone warns that its service shouldn't be considered a replacement for ordinary phone service, because you can't make E911 calls with it.

For more:
- Read about it here at Tom's Guide.

Related articles
TruPhone makes 2008 VoIP Fierce 15
SPOTLIGHT: TruPhone iPhone - FierceVoIP

All sections | Sections | All articles | News |