CNet Technology and VIVOphone are teaming together to offer customers a series of VOIP solutions. This association marks CNet’s entry into the VOIP market and capitalizes on its established distribution and support network in the U.S. and Latin America.

“We believe that by choosing VIVOphone as our VOIP partner and by working as a team, we can consolidate our individual strengths and spur further growth for each company,” said Bryan Chan, EVP of CNet Technology. “In addition, VIVOphone has strong presence in Latin America and CNet is eager to leverage VIVOphone’s visibility in order to serve the needs of the market.”

The U.S. market for VoIP advanced dramatically in 2006, adding 3.8 million VoIP households in 2006, reports In-Stat. As a result, wholesale VoIP revenues are growing quickly, as MSOs, Skype, and a myriad of new entrants—most lacking network facilities—enter the market and drive demand for telephony features and applications, the high-tech market research firm says.

“As retail VoIP expands, wholesale VoIP will accelerate quickly,” says Bryan Van Dussen, In-Stat analyst. “The largest segment remains international VoIP, but we expect the market for local services to surge from 12% of all revenues to 27% by 2010.”

Eschelon Telecom plans to add Voice Over Internet Protocol product capabilities to its network. The new IP applications will leverage the existing network infrastructure from Nortel and Cisco Systems, and will be available in addition to existing TDM products.

“We have always maintained that VoIP products can work very well for some customers,” stated Richard A. Smith, Eschelon’s President and CEO. “At the same time, there are customers with applications that do not work well over this technology. By offering both technologies, we will be able to offer the best solution to fit the customer’s needs, rather than forcing the customer into the only technology we offer.”

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the new Frost & Sullivan Report “North American Residential VoIP Services Markets” to their offering.

This Frost & Sullivan research service titled North American Residential VoIP Services Market provides insight into the drivers and challenges associated with shifting the consumer market for IP telephony into the mass-market adoption phase. Trends such as the use of softphones and new enhanced services are provided. In this study, Frost & Sullivan's expert analysts thoroughly examine the North American residential VoIP lines in service and associated revenues.

ClearOne announced that their market-leading audio technologies and state-of-the-art conferencing products are being showcased at the Internet Telephony Conference & Expo East in Ft. Lauderdale, from January 23-26. Some of the unique VoIP-capable products on display at the show include the Company’s personal conferencing products, the Chat 50 and Chat 150. ClearOne will also showcase their VoIP tabletop conferencing solutions, the MAXAttach IP and MAX IP.

ClearOne’s Chat 50 is the award-winning personal audio peripheral that connects to a wide variety of devices and provides crystal clear, hands-free audio communications. Its unmatched full-duplex capability enables users to simultaneously speak and listen with high-performance two-way audio. The crossover technology in the Chat 50, which allows it to connect to PCs, Macs, cell phones, telephones, and desktop video conferencing devices, enables hands-free communications in new ways that have not previously been possible. It also provides rich audio playback for music, gaming and other audio applications. It is slightly larger than a deck of cards, making it a truly one-of-a-kind go-anywhere personal conferencing device.

I received and interesting email which included a case study of VoIP implementation at Hall-Dale Schools in Maine.

"In their VoIP system, Hall-Dale was primarily looking for connectivity and basic capabilities like auto-attendant messaging. John acknowledges that the e-mail .wav file with voicemail messages is a very nice and useful addition, as is the ease of adding new extensions. In the near future, he wishes to add new extensions dedicated for sports lines, for example, to facilitate communication and announcements for sporting teams and events. In addition, he plans to add a voicemail box to accommodate specialized messages for school attendants which would free up personnel and resources. This type of auto-attendant voicemail could allow parents to call in and easily notify the school if their child is sick and will not be attending classes. It could also contain weather-related messages and school closing announcements. He expects that the addition of these capabilities will increase productivity which will inevitably improve "customer" service."

It's a short 4 page study that describes how PingTel made it work:

• Hall-Dale Schools Background
• Business Objectives
• Approach
• Recommendation
• Implementation Challenges
• and Results

Iristel in an effort to continue to bring affordable communication services to all Canadians, has recently launched its residential Pay as you Go VoIP plan.

The new Pay-As-You-Go VoIP telephone service will revolutionize the way people subscribe to home telephone service and is exclusively offered to Iristel's Residential subscribers. Pay As You Go launches nationally on January 15, 2007 and will feature an exclusive prepaid package that enables customers to personalize their communication services.

"Iristel aims to bring cost effective communicative solutions to its end users. With packages now starting at $3.95 per month, Iristel's Broadfone Digital Telephone Service is becoming the provider of choice for Canadians," says Samer Bishay, President and CEO, Iristel Inc. "With today's busy lifestyles, the average person is not at home very often, and when they are, why pay for a telephone service they are not using. By continuing to offer the most diverse plans in the marketplace, we are able to provide our customers with a unique product geared towards them, and their lifestyles."

For further information and pricing details, please visit www.iristel.ca

Imagine having a phone line with all the bells and whistles at $9.95 a month plus e-voicemail – where you can now receive and manage your voicemail through email and save up to 50% savings in your home phone line and feature cost. Instead of bundling services that you may not want such as unlimited long distance service for a fixed monthly fee, Times Telecom allows its subscribers to choose the plans that fit their budget and needs such as – unlimited long distance to many countries, virtual phone numbers (the ability to add on phone numbers of many countries whereby from Vancouver you can receive local calls from anyone in selected cities such as London, Hong Kong, etc). In addition to the above, Times Telecom ‘Tag Along’ capability allows users the capability to bring along their equipment with them when they are on the road so that they are able to continue to make and receive calls. Welcome to the Century of VoIP.

Woize announces it will expand its services to all 50 US states and introduce US numbers for its digital communication service offerings during February 2007.

The introduction of telephone numbers in 50 American states will expand the current Woize service offering by giving consumers and branding partners the opportunity to benefit from Woize's low cost calling plans, and an expanding number of destinations. American resident users and individuals or companies with frequent American contact, will be given the opportunity to test a new national IP telephony provider. Woize's introduction of U.S. numbers creates healthy competition and provides an effective alternative to other providers like Skype and Vonage. This competition is ultimately best for consumers.

EarthLink is in the spirit of giving! Today, the ISP is kicking off a service that will give Philadelphia residents, workers and visitors an opportunity to try on its EarthLink Wi-Fi product free-of-charge through January 21, 2007.

Available to consumers who live, work or visit EarthLink's 15-square-mile proof-of-concept (POC) area, which extends east of Broad Street and north of the Vine Street Expressway (http://www.emnwifi.net/cities/philadelphia/), EarthLink Wi-Fi offers down-and-upload speeds up to 1Mbps.

"Our goal is clear: build a state-of-the-art wireless network across Philadelphia's 135 square miles. A key to doing this is gathering valuable feedback and insights from users of the network as construction continues," said Donald Berryman, executive vice president of EarthLink and president of the ISP's municipal networks unit. "Further, we are happy to launch this service at this time, and hope residents and visitors enjoy Wi-Fi access, free-of-charge."

Global Crossing announced that Alpine Access is using Global Crossing's converged IP services to ease their network expansion, penetrate new markets and deliver superior customer service.

Recently named one of the fastest-growing large private companies in Colorado by the Denver Business Journal, Alpine Access is using Global Crossing's VoIP Local Service to expand the reach of their network and to support a rapidly growing agent workforce. Alpine Access recently announced that it is adding 500 employees in the Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and Tampa, Fla., markets.

Global Crossing's VoIP Local Service, a direct inward dial service, lets Alpine Access' "work-at-home" agents receive calls from customers simply by calling a local telephone number. Global Crossing's voice network accepts the call from the public switched telephone network, converts it to IP and transports it to its final destination via Global Crossing's MPLS IP-based network.

Vonage has reached a deal with Earthlink today to resell wireless internet services in cities like New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Milpitas, California where Earthlink has Wi-Fi networks.

Pricing has yet to be set on the Vonage broadband service, which will be bundled with their VoIP offering and support a “next generation Vonage Wi-Fi phone,” according to the announcement’s press release. And while the deal might seem to be detrimental to EarthLink’s own VoIP service, TrueVoice1, an EarthLink exec said Sunday night that it’s “part of the company’s DNA” to sell wholesale network services to any provider who wants access, and to compete on price, support and services at the application layer.

New World Brands announces a strategic alliance between its IP Gear Connect services division and NewGen Technologies for the launch of the first of four innovative retail VoIP offerings. The test version of an unlimited-use, low-cost retail VoIP service from Jamaica to the US, Canada and the UK hits the market before the end of Q4, 2006. The venture with NewGen enables New World Brands’ VoIP services division, IP Gear Connect, to extend its superior quality VoIP offering further into the expanding consumer marketplace.

New World Brands and NewGen are committed to situating VoIP in the hands of consumers using methods that follow the traditional sales model for retail calling products. As of early 2006, at least 73% of consumers that switched to VoIP were unaware of the technological shift, research firm In-Stat stated in a report predicting that in 2009, the number of worldwide VoIP subscribers will have grown to more than 55 million. Analyst firm Point Topic reports that VoIP subscribers increased 83% in 2005, from 10.3 million subscribers to 18.7 million subscribers worldwide.

VoX Communications reaches a wholesale agreement with regional cable operator, Allegiance Communications. Allegiance will private label VoX to give its customers, most of whom live in smaller, underserved cities and towns, access to the cost and feature benefits of broadband phone service.

Allegiance owns and operates broadband cable systems in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri. The company, which recently acquired systems from Charter Communications, now counts more than 175,000 homes passed in their served markets. The wholesale agreement with VoX will enable Allegiance customers to enjoy the savings and convenience of receiving television, Internet and phone service from a single provider

Transcend Communications has implemented a nine-site install of ShoreTel IP Telephony Systems with Shakopee Public Schools located in Shakopee, Minnesota.

"The ShoreTel VoIP System met our specifications having the features along with the functionality to meet the needs of our K-12 Institution," said Wade Phillips, Director of Technology, Shakopee Schools. "Adding two buildings and having an outdated system is what led to the migration of the ShoreTel System. This was a rather aggressive project consisting of nine locations. The Transcend team laid out a systematic process from start to finish and followed through with the plan, providing us one virtual phone system to manage all nine locations," said Phillips.