Facilities-based wholesale provider 360networks, which earlier this month accepted  a deal to be acquired by Zayo Group, has expanded its own IP Origination footprint, adding 48 rate centers in the Houston LATA. With the addition--which has a population coverage of some 4.5 million--360networks now provides wholesale VoIP services in six of the nation's 10 largest metropolitan areas, and 1606 rate centers covering a population base of over 80 million people across 17 states.

360networks offers a full suite of VoIP services that includes IP Origination, IP Termination, and Toll Free, with a variety of pricing models and features. The VoIP services leverage the company's 18,500 route mile fiber optic backbone to reduce costs and minimize third party dependencies.

It's been a busy year for the company. Besides being acquired, the company has been expanding its presence in Texas and, in July, launched 360connect, a new VoIP customer portal. It's also currently in beta trial for the 360connect Application Programming Interface (API).

"Extending our VoIP reach to include Houston, and other Texas markets, is an obvious extension for customers to use 360networks as their single source provider," said Nick Reifschneider, VoIP product director for 360networks. 

For more:
- see this release

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The increasing popularity of employees working remotely is causing security and networking headaches for enterprises trying to include them in their unified communications functionality. Traditional firewalls struggle to support UC real-time protocols, and, as a result, employees seldom realize the value of UC application investment.

The EdgeMarc Enterprise Session Border Controller (pictured) can terminate multiple TLS connectors from remote locations.

But Edgewater Networks, which in May launched a new session border controller targeted at SMBs and branch offices of larger enterprises, has rolled out yet another SBC designed to extend UC.

Its EdgeProtect Series e-SBC enables enterprises to save money while securely connecting all employees--including remote and distributed personnel--to their UC systems and IP PBXs.

The EdgeProtect solution uses Transport Layer Security to simplify connectivity and provide confidentiality, authentication and encryption for all IP-based voice, video and data connections. It also integrates passive call quality monitoring to isolate network impairments to local or wide area network segments. 

The new platforms--there are three interations--terminate multiple TLS connections from remote locations using Edgewater Networks EdgeMarc Enterprise Session Border Controllers.

The EdgeProtect solution is fully interoperable with any IP-based UC system, including solutions from Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Cisco Systems, IBM, Interactive Intelligence, Microsoft, Mitel, NEC, ShoreTel, HP Networking, Siemens, Digium and Aastra.  As securing voice and video devices can be complicated due to inconsistent encryption support and certificate management issues across components, the EdgeProtect solution provides comprehensive security for all IP phones, PC soft clients and server systems including those that do not natively support encryption services.

"Unified Communications holds the promise of increased productivity and reduced costs but only if implemented easily and reliably," said David G. Norman, CEO of Edgewater Networks. "The EdgeProtect solution enables enterprise organizations to save money and create a competitive advantage by providing simplified, secure access to their UC systems."

For more:
- see this release

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Sean Buckley over at FierceTelecom sat down with 360Networks CTO Brady Adams to talk about wholesale services and migrating from legacy to next gen networks. Interview

In a vote of confidence for the security of its networks, 360networks has announced that it will be providing private line circuits for CDS Telecom.

CDS Telecom is a provider of project management, design and engineering services for DoD, federal government and commercial telecommunications projects. The telecom company will use 360networks' western state connectivity to support a government project in that area.

"The end users who rely upon our circuits are responsible for safeguarding our nation, and network security and reliability are crucial to those missions," said CDS vice president and general manager Mark Whitney in a release. "360networks not only got us precisely where we needed to go, something other providers were not able to do, but they did so using a robust network that is necessary to support our ultra-important end users."

360networks is a facilities-based full service wholesale provider of VoIP, Private Line Transport, IP and Local Access solutions and the company claims its focus on advanced networking helped it win the deal.

For more:
- read the release

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360networks has been busy making upgrades and adding services to its wholesale VoIP product suite.

First, the wholesale operator has upgraded its wholesale VoIP by offering Orca Wave's BlueWater software. The software is a voice routing management system which will help enhance and streamline the wholesaler's OCN-LATA and NPA-NXX based routing and monitoring capabilities, carrier rating tools, code management, and detailed reporting.

"With the integration of Orca's Blue Water software and improved processes our operations become even more productive to enhance services and increase value to our customers," said Brady Adams, 360networks' CTO in a release.

Second on 360networks' list of updates is the addition of SMS/MMS features to its wholesale VoIP offering. The wholesale provider also upgraded its VoIP Origination service to include support for short message service/multimedia message service (SMS/MMS). It also added a new metered inbound pricing model for communications service providers requiring billing based on total minutes of call time.

For more:
- read the Orca Wave release
- read the SMS/MMS announcement

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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.

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- 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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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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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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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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