360networks, a wholesale VoIP and fiber wholesale provider, announced it will use Empirix's Hammer XMS monitoring and troubleshooting system to watch its 17,000 route mile fiber network.

Empirix's Hammer XMS is a network monitoring system that offers visualization of real-time service quality using a graphical user interface to optimize the search and diagnostic process and monitor the network for negative trends in voice quality.

"The integration of Empirix's Hammer XMS technology allows us to manage both VoIP and TDM call flows into a single application, improving fault isolation and network performance," said Brady Adams, chief technology officer of 360networks in a release.

For more:
- read the release

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In a move to simplify IP communications deployments, Nortel Carrier VoIP Application Solutions (CVAS) has teamed up with Edgewater Networks to provide the the gateway maker's products to Nortel CVAS customers.

According to FierceVoIP's interview with Nortel, the new thing about this partnership with Edgwater is that Nortel CVAS will be selling SMBs the entire package combining Edgewater's EdgeMarc Network Services Gateways and EdgeView VoIP Support System with Nortel's Hosted IP Communications--offering a holistic approach that will be plug and play. Offering one package to get them up and running, the new offering will relieve customers of the task of purchasing, installing and managing additional CPE infrastructure.

Nortel's Hosted IP communications gives service providers carrier-hosted UCC for enterprise customers with email, IM, VoIP, click-to-call and video calling. Edgewater's EdgeMarc Network Services Gateways and EdgeView VoIP Support system will add IP Routing, survivability, SIP call processing and QoS functions to these services.

For more:
- read the release

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LOS ANGELES - Sipera, maker of VoIP security solutions, prefers that customers proactively prepare their communications networks before serious problems arise. But Adam Boone, VP of marketing for Sipera, said some anecdotes from panels at IT EXPO West show that often security doesn't cross people's minds until it's much too late.

At a panel in which he participated, Boone said one presenter, an executive at a VoIP and UC reseller in Southern California, admitted just how costly failing to secure the company's network proved to be.

"No one likes to admit that they've been victimized by toll fraud," Boone said. "But he pulled out a monthly bill for $19,000 resulting from a hack over a weekend that resulted in 9,000 minutes of international dialing before the employees came back on Monday to discover something was wrong. Their usual monthly bill was only a couple hundred dollars."

Boone said it's best to identify weaknesses and vulnerabilities in a voice network during deployment, before "hair on fire" issues like toll fraud or corporate espionage demand immediate, costly attention.

He shared another story of a Fortune 100 client that was involved in major litigation with a competitor, who they believed was eavesdropping on their VoIP communications. Sipera diagnosed the vulnerabilities, but before fixing them, let the firm plant evidence in phone calls. Sure enough, that planted information was presented by the competition in the litigation soon after, and the client was able to prove that the competitor was up to no good.

Boone said the company plans to expand into IP video surveillance and video teleconferencing security in the next 12 months.

Broadview Networks, a business communications provider, announced its has purchased some of its Natural Convergence Inc.'s software, hardware and intellectual property assets, including the rights to the silhouette product line. Natural Convergence, which is insolvent according to reports, purchased assets from another defunct company, NewStep Networks, just two months prior, raising some questions about the firm's capital allocation.

After that acquisition, Natural Convergence President Bill Crank said in an interview that the company was looking at other purchasing opportunities in the next six to nine months, but it appears that poor economic conditions have reversed that equation. Broadview said it would hire nine Natural Convergence employees as part of the purchase, according Venturewire.

For more:
- see the Ottowa Citizen article here 

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Encore Networks announced that IPsmarx Technology, VoIP solution provider, has selected Encore’s SP-201-Z Signaling Gateway to deliver C7 to ISDN protocol conversion and other VoIP based solutions to Long Distance carriers and global operators.

VoIP is the most likely application type to have deployments delayed due to third-party network concerns, according to a survey of IT managers.
The report by Apparent Networks found that 73 per cent of respondents also said VoIP was the most common application to stress their networks.

VoIP applications provider Broadsoft and IP infrastructure solutions developer GENBAND have announced a new set of solutions that enable carriers to upgrade their networks while supporting legacy features.
The two companies have integrated GENBAND's gateways with BroadSoft's suite of hosted telephony and multimedia applications.

Apparent Networks, an IT performance manager focusing on cloud applications, conducted a survey of IT managers that found VoIP is the most likely application type to have deployments delayed due to third-party network concerns. Seventy-three percent of the survey respondents also said VoIP was the most common application to stress their networks.

Of the IT managers surveyed who said they delayed an application deployment (36 percent), 61 percent said they had delayed a VoIP application. Unified communications and video delivery applications were the next two most commonly cited for delays in deployment. 

For more:
- see the press release here

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Agito Networks, a unified communications and FMC hardware maker, announced it is the first company to deliver a solution that enables fixed-mobile convergence and unified communications functionality for RIM's BlackBerry smartphones. Prior to Agito's solution, BlackBerry users could only access UC and PBX functionality from their cellular network, which caused problems with poor in-building cellular performance and costly cellular roaming charges for workers traveling internationally.

Agito Chief Marketing Office Pejman Roshan said mobile UC for the BlackBerry has been sought after by enterprises for years, as the device is the North American smartphone market leader and a fixture in enterprise communications.

"Agito's BlackBerry solution is RIM Developer approved, works without any hacking or "jailbreaking" of the device, and will continue to function smoothly with any firmware updates to the phone, since the solution was developed using RIM APIs," Roshan said. "While other companies offer mobility and unified communications functionality on the BlackBerry, they can only do so only with several expensive upgrades to their servers and PBXs, and no one has been able to deliver these services over WiFi to this point. The Agito RoamAnywhere Mobility Router is also the only solution which provides mid-call conference, hold and transfer options for the Blackberry."

Agito will support four BlackBerry devices: The Bold 9000, the Curve 8900, the 8800 and the Curve 8300. The solution is currently in beta testing and will be available to all Agito users by mid-July, according to Roshan. All current RoamAnywhere Mobility Router users will have to do to gain BlackBerry functionality is download a software update. The service will have no additional charge, and will not require the use of a RIM's Mobile Voice Services plan to access the VoIP over WiFi capabilities. 

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Media5 has released a SIP client application that allows the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch to be used as a IP-PBX extension.
The company says the full-featured softphone enables the Apple devices to be used to access the same phone services and features as if they were in the office.

VoIP equipment purchases are decreasing at the expense of spending on the deployment of IMS (IP multimedia subsystem) technology, according to Infonetics Research.
Worldwide sales of IMS equipment, including HSS (home subscriber servers), CSCF servers, and voice application servers, are forecast to jump 74 per cent in 2009 over 2008.

Hosted VoIP solutions provider Aptela has announced that its working with ClearSight Networks' Network Time Machine (NTM) to diagnose problems on customer and carrier networks.
Matt Smith, vice president of technology and client services at Aptela, said the solution allows them to quickly and easily maintain network uptime and stave off unexpected outages.

GlowPoint, a video communications company based in New Jersey, announced it will support cross-carrier telepresence and video calling applications for Polycom customers. GlowPoint CEO Joe Laezza said the company's Telepresence interExchange Network (TEN) allows users to connect to customers, partners and vendors using Polycom videoconferencing equipment regardless of carrier while maintaining security, quality and interoperability.

"Channels and service providers, as well as enterprise customers, recognize the value of broad B2B collaboration, which is resulting in significant interest and adoption of TEN," Laezza said in a prepared statement. "We are proud to have Polycom join us in bringing this unique B2B capability to the Polycom user market and partner base."

GlowPoint said that allowing customers to call across networks and connect to other standards-based telepresence systems allows for more secure and useful collaboration between organizations.

Polycom began a push last November to improve its videoconferencing offering to meet additional demand from companies looking to replace expensive travel budgets with virtual meetings.

For more:
- see the press release here 

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The European Union (EU) is preparing legislation to force carriers to allow VoIP to run on their cellular networks.
EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding has said that "action" should be taken against carriers that use their market power to block "innovative services".

Agito Networks announced a significant upgrade to its RoamAnywhere mobile unified communications offering Monday. The RoamAnywhere Mobility Router now meshes WiFi and IP telephony capabilities with an advanced location detection system and presence functions that provide a comprehensive mobile UC offering.

The new version of the router also provides support for GSM and CDMA devices, which the company claims is an industry first. The company said its offering is providing significant cost savings to global companies by intelligently transferring calls to the lowest-cost method and increasing productivity.

"As presence technologies are gaining a toehold in enterprises' mix of UC solutions, Agito is the first solution to intelligently communicate users' full presence state based on mobile context and location," said Pejman Roshan, Agito Networks chief marketing officer.  "Callers now have intelligence into a user's presence before making a call, allowing them to select the best method of communication depending how available a person may be."

Roshan said Agito has several cost-savings prongs in its unified communications strategy and uses them appropriately to design the best solution for a given enterprise or organization's situation.

For more:
- see the press release here 

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VoIP telephone services in Western Europe leapt to just under 30 million consumer lines by mid-2008 - up from 20 million only a year earlier.
That figure has continued to climb and totalled 35 million lines at the end of the year, according to a survey by researchers TeleGeography.

Ditech Networks announced it is rolling out toktok, a voice-enabled service to connect people with popular web apps through a single word spoken during a phone call. The announcement is the latest in a slew rolling out of eComm this week, proving that the event is living up to being the thought-leadership heir to the original (circa 1997-2008) VON franchise.

The toktok service is being designed to easily integrate web apps, social networks, and Gmail contacts and calendar so people can schedule appointments, create new tasks, and bring others in on a conference, all in mid-conversation. To activate, the magic word during the phone call is "toktok."

Needless to say, the hottest area for toktok is on cell phones, but any sort of hands-free multi-tasking situation should be equally applicable, so don't rule out landline and/or VoIP usage (Hmm, combine this with Skype's SILK and...).

Ditech is also including a Facebook 'Voice Poke' app to show which members of a person's online social network are on the phone and allow "whisper" messages to be sent directly into phone calls. Future iterations of the app could include the ability to delivery messages in celebrity voices, short music or movie clips, and more.

The toktok app is an example of Ditech's mStage media platform introduced at Mobile World Congress earlier this month.  Access to toktok will be based on an open API, so third-party developers can create mash-ups to their heart's content.

For more:
- DiTech Networks release.

Related article
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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.

Publicly traded Riverbed Technology acquired privately-owned Mazu Networks for $25 million in cash, the companies announced Wednesday.

There are the usual incentives involved for good performance, but the bar is quite high. Mazu might get as much as $22 million more in cash at the end of a 12-month period - if they book $35 million in business. Since Mazu had $18 million in bookings during the past twelve months, they'd have to double sales in a down economy to get the extra payment.

Riverbed says the impact to non-GAAP earnings will be break-even in 2009 and adding to the bottom line in 2010.

Riverbed, a WAN optimization solutions company, gets Mazu's analysis and reporting software that provides a real-time view of applications usage and performance - good for VoIP, UC and video optimization, as well as security monitoring to spot anomalies.  Customers could run Mazu's software before they install a Riverbed solution to figure out what needs to be optimized, and then later run it to ensure that all the improvements are working as anticipated; they also get data in a nice tidy presentation package including customizable dashboards and reports.

GigaOm points out that the VC took a bath on this deal.  Investors put in more than $40 million in cash into Mazu.

For more:
- GigaOm reports here.
- Riverbed press release.

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Verizon is doing a lot of "correcting" these days, after an apparent erroneous Bloomberg interview conducted out at CES last week said the company would "do away with" traditional phone lines within seven years.

The remarks, attributed to Verizon CMO John Stratton, were officially de-blogged, er debunked, by Verizon's head PR guy Eric Rabe Tuesday afternoon.  In the blog post, Rabe states:

"... neither John nor anyone else here thinks that the traditional, circuit-switched phone network will be a thing of the past in seven years.  What's often called the public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the world's most reliable, high quality, landline voice communications system. The Verizon traditional phone system will serve customers for a long time to come...John's point was, and there's not a lot of new news here, that we see that voice can and is becoming an application called VoIP on broadband networks."

Rabe goes on to say: "...the quality of VoIP voice calls and the reliability of VoIP networks are in no way superior to the quality and reliability provided by the Verizon PSTN network.  In short, there is no logical reason for a company like Verizon, with a terrific voice network already in place, to dismantle that network and replace it with VoIP... But don't expect the landline circuit-switched network to magically blink out in seven years. For many customers, the traditional phone network may be the best solution for years to come."

Bottom line: Verizon is not phasing out its copper network in seven years and has no plans to move everyone currently on the PSTN to VoIP. However, Verizon will begin moving its FiOS voice customers to a VoIP offering "very soon," according to Carol Wilson at Telephony. Moving to VoIP on FiOS will enable Verizon to deliver some additional services.

For more:
- Verizon head PR guy blogs a rebuttal.
- Telephony and Carol Wilson gets clarity from Verizon. Blog.

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At press time, we await the official word from BroadSoft on its acquisition of Sylantro, an end-of-year cap to a steady stream of deals that took place over the course of 2008. 

A good chunk of this year's M&A activity was driven by tightening credit (see BroadSoft/Sylantro). Investors were unwilling to throw more money at companies that didn't appear to have any hope of breaking black anytime soon, forcing a number of companies to find a marriage before they ended up in bankruptcy proceedings. 

Cisco and Oracle continued their devouring ways, while Dialogic and GENBAND pursued their business strategies of growth through rollups. Looking back, we were a bit surprised by EXFO getting into the acquisition game, but we can't argue with who they brought.   

If Santa is looking for something to put in the FierceVoIP stocking on December 25, it's the story behind the GENBAND/NextPoint acquisition. How much did GENBAND pay for the company? Did Dialogic pursue NextPoint and bow out due to the price tag? Were there any other suitors for NextPoint? 

The biggest curveball out of 2008 was the out-of-nowhere purchase of VoIP and Video SIP service provider SightSpeed by PC-peripheral manufacturer Logitech. But we understand why the combination of video technology development expertise and recurring revenues would be attractive. Combine SightSpeed's service with Logitech's potential for global marketing to make for some interesting growth potential. 

Jabber punches up Cisco's UC effort - FierceTelecom
GENBAND adds NextPoint - FierceTelecom
BroadSoft acquiring Sylantro - The impact - FierceVoIP
EXFO to acquire IPTV tester Brix Networks - FierceTelecom
Dialogic devours NMS hardware biz - FierceTelecom
Dialogic Corporation Acquires OpenMediaLabs' Business
Logitech buys SightSpeed for $30M - FierceVoIP
Green Wednesday - VoIP mergers and acquisitions of 2008

Summing up responses from "nearly 70" IP network operators around the globe, Arbor Networks issued a gloomy report on worldwide infrastructure security. Malicious attacks (are there any friendly attacks?) continued to grow at "an alarming rate" over the past year, with VoIP and IPv6 labeled as emerging threats.

Only 21 percent of respondents said they had the tools in place to detect threats against VoIP infrastructure or services, but those that do are prepared with solutions to mitigate threats against VoIP infrastructure and services. The report doesn't specifically break out VoIP-specific attacks into a unique category, but at least one operator noted "Heavy VoIP scans on the increase recently."

Chasing new reviews means that ISPs are increasingly deploying more complex infrastructure to deliver VoIP, video and IP services.  Adding more complex infrastructure also adds more opportunities for an attacker because everything gets so much more complicated.

Arbor says providers need to have deep application insight into IP services and apps - can we say DPI and an Arbor Networks sales brochure?  On the other hand, any sarcasm is tampered by reports of DDoS attacks as large as 40 gigabits, with the largest sustained attacks of 24 and 17 Gbps respectively. When you stop to consider that all but the largest carriers run at about 10 Gbps or so, life gets very ugly.

For more:
- Arbor Networks summarizes its fourth annual infrastructure security report. Release.

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Skype’s Christopher Libertelli recently questioned the major US wireless carriers’ commitment to open networks.
Today voip.biz-news.com has the response from Gizmo Project’s CEO, Michael Robertson, who accuses Skype of hypocrisy for wanting others to open their networks while refusing to open its own.

Christopher Libertelli, Skype's senior director of government and regulatory affairs for North America, has written a strongly-worded letter complaining that the major US wireless carriers are all talk when it comes to "open" networks.
Writing to the FCC chairman, Kevin Martin, he said that if the Commission wanted to live up to its stated goal of making open networks more accessible, it would affirm that this policy covered wireless networks.