ManageEngine announces the availability of the OpManager VoIP Monitor Module. Offering seamless integration with OpManager, the VoIP Monitor Module leverages Cisco IP Service Level Agreement technology to monitor and report on key VoIP service performance metrics.

With the VoIP Monitor Module, OpManager extends its fault and performance management capabilities across VoIP infrastructures, providing administrators with a single, unified console, for complete visibility into performance of both data and voice networks, in local area and wide area networks. The VoIP Monitor dashboard features in-depth bandwidth utilization graphing to facilitate quick troubleshooting of VoIP performance problems.

Educating end users, resellers, distributors and systems integrators about SIP trunking is on the agenda as Ingate Systems partners with TMC, leading IP-PBX vendors, SIP trunking service providers and industry thought-leaders to offer "SIP Trunking: Everything You Need to Know" seminars at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & Expo East 2009.

Free to all ITEXPO attendees, these seminars will provide a comprehensive overview of SIP trunking, and include general information panels and technical insight sessions from both the service provider and enterprise perspectives. Speakers from VOIPSA and the SIP Forum will also participate.

Students, teachers and parents in the Sherman Independent School District in North Texas are leveraging the power of advanced communications in and out of the classroom, using new services from Verizon Business. The services will be provided under a new agreement that expands the company’s decade-long relationship with the district, which is located about 60 miles north of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, near the Oklahoma border. The Sherman ISD serves about 6,100 students at 12 locations.

Verizon Business is currently completing the installation of a new VoIP platform and is deploying wireless LANS for each school campus to expand the district’s communications capability and reach. The new services are provided via the district’s existing high-capacity Ethernet network, which also carries the district’s Internet, data and voice services.

Digium and Asteria Solutions Group renewed their companies’ partnership. Asteria has been a Digium Premier Software Partner since 2007 and has contributed to Asterisk since Asteria’s founding in 2004. The company provides software that works with Asterisk, including OmegaDial, the Web-based autodialer for high-volume call campaigns, and also draws upon its deep knowledge of Asterisk to create custom telephony solutions to meet unique business requirements.

JDSU introduces the SmartClass Triple Play Services test instrument, an all-in-one handheld tool for the installation, maintenance and troubleshooting of IP video, VoIP, IP data and ADSL 1/2/2+ services. The SmartClass TPS performs highly complex tests yet is easy-to-use, meets the challenges associated with mass broadband deployments, and can scale to future requirements as technology evolves.

VoipUser announces the interconnection of British Telecom 0870 range numbers to the VoIP peering iNUM network. British Telecom will make 0870 numbers free to call to subscribers on their Anytime call plan starting on January 16th, 2009.

John Peter, managing Director of BT's Consumer Business, said in a Press Release on Thursday "All of our 14 million Anytime customers have free calls included in their package and now all 14 million have free calls to 0870 at times that fit with their calling plan, which is something not offered by any of our competitors."

Skype announces the availability of Skype 1.0 Beta for Intel-based Mobile Internet Devices. This new version of Skype software is the result of working with Intel Corporation to develop a new mobile Skype experience for MIDs based on the Intel Atom processor and Moblin-based Linux OS.

MIDs are an emerging category of small, truly mobile consumer devices enabling a rich Internet experience, coupled with the capability to communicate with others, enjoy entertainment, access information, and be productive on the go – all without sacrificing mobility or performance. MIDs typically come with 4”-7” screens, a camera, GPS and WiFi connectivity. Select MIDs also provide WiMax or 3G/4G support for wireless broadband connectivity on-the-go. ABI Research expects 86 million Linux-enabled MIDs to ship by 2013.

Boingo Mobile gives mobile phone and smartphone users from the iPhone to the Nokia Nseries and Eseries to any Wi-Fi enabled Windows Mobile device the ability to get online at more than 100,000 Boingo hotspots around the world.

Boingo Mobile is a downloadable application for smartphones that works on a variety of mobile operating systems, including Symbian and UIQ devices, Windows Mobile, and the iPhone platform. The Boingo Mobile software simplifies the process of logging in to Wi-Fi hotspots, and gives users the faster Wi-FI connection speeds to do more on their phones, including uploading and downloading files – such as music, images and documents - and using business applications, such as email and VoIP.

Voxbone has been highly commended in the Best VoIP Innovation category of the ITSPA awards, December 2008. Voxbone has been recognised for its work in using VoIP to deliver inbound services.

The UK VoIP Industry’s trade body, The Internet Telephony Service Providers’ Association represents network operators, service providers and other businesses involved with the supply of VoIP services to business and residential customers. Their much-coveted awards, hosted by Ian Taylor MP and Derek Wyatt MP and held in the House of Commons, recognise today’s pioneering technologies that will shape tomorrow’s communications. Judged by a group of independent judges the UK’s top VoIP products were stringently evaluated on the basis of reliability, user-friendliness, design, innovation, price and value for money. In each category the judges selected a winner and highly commended a finalist.

Acme Packet announces that JAJAH has deployed Acme Packet’s Net-Net session border controllers to protect JAJAH’s SIP application infrastructure and dynamically optimize the quality and profitability of its IP communication platform.

JAJAH provides retail IP calling services to consumers and businesses and white label services to carriers, Web 2.0 companies and application service providers. JAJAH provides a fully outsourced IP communications platform, including PSTN and IP termination, billing, payments, fraud prevention and quality management. JAJAH is the platform partner for dozens of local and global organizations, such as Yahoo!, Plaxo and eHarmony. For example, Yahoo!’s premium voice services, “Phone In” and “Phone Out,” enable consumers to make high-quality, low-cost PC-to-phone and phone-to-PC voice calls over the JAJAH network to more than 200 countries using Yahoo! Messenger.

Skype announces the release of a lite version of Skype, a ‘thin’ client for Skype that can be downloaded on Android-powered devices, as well as more than 100 other Java-enabled mobile phones.

This launch builds on successful public testing last year and the incorporation of user feedback to an earlier beta version which was only available on a limited number of mobile devices. The updated beta now makes Skype software broadly available to millions of mobile users worldwide, including for the first time, mobile users in the U.S. The lite version delivers core Skype capabilities including... Find out after the jump.

SPIRIT DSP and RMI Corporation have signed a Partnership and Platform License Agreement to deliver high quality voice and video over IP for RMI’s Alchemy Processor family, an advanced MIPS-compatible processor solution.

Sling Media is demonstrating a version of SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone being developed for the iTunes store at this year's Macworld. Sling Media will deliver a version of SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone to Apple for certification in Q1.

Sling Media is also unveiling a prototype of the new SlingPlayer for Mac HD which allows Slingbox PRO-HD users to stream HD content to their Mac desktop or laptop computer. The new SlingPlayer for Mac HD is a web-based version of the SlingPlayer software that will be accessible from Sling.com, Sling Media's recently launched video entertainment web site. Sling Media can be found in two locations at this year's Macworld: The Mac Developer Pavilion- South Hall, #1438 (next to Apple) and the Digital Media and Multimedia Pavilion: North Hall #3526-Q.

TalkSwitch has appointed ICON as its distributor for the United Kingdom. At recommended retail prices starting from GBP499, TalkSwitch comes complete with an extensive feature set that includes built-in voicemail, auto-attendant greetings, call forwarding to mobiles, remote management, and support for both analogue and IP handsets for up to 16 extensions, with modular growth to 64.

TerreStar and Comneon announce that the integrated satellite-terrestrial multi-mode handset designed by Elektrobit for TerreStar has successfully demonstrated VOIP connectivity using satellite simulation in a Comneon test lab.

TerreStar expects to be North America’s first integrated satellite-terrestrial communications network to utilize an IMS to deliver ubiquitous access and personalized applications and services over wireless devices, such as mobile phones and PDAs. The TerreStar handset uses the Comneon IMS Device Framework as a client solution for its next generation integrated mobile satellite and terrestrial communications network.