Skype is one of the most justly celebrated successes of the Internet era with more than 450 million subscribers and still growing. The only problem is that subscribers are tethered to their computers, WiFi hotspot, or mobile applications often with poor voice quality. Whether it be with Skype, Vonage or other providers, Internet calling—VoIP—is not yet fully mobile.

There are numerous examples from around the world of cellular companies that have made it clear that they do not want VoIP calls to travel over their networks. This is not surprising in that VoIP calls are free or extremely low cost in contrast to the relatively high cost of cell phone service.

ANET has launches its FRESH VOICE HD desktop video conferencing system with the strength of Global IP Solutions Video ConferenceEngine inside. ANET is providing enterprises with a sophisticated video conferencing system that offers Full HD voice and video, desktop and document sharing and the ability to invite and schedule conferences. It also connects up to 50 locations, which is suitable for linking large groups or corporate meetings.

CompareBusinessProducts.com performs regular surveys of business product buyers, particularly in the telephony space and the latest survey of 500 real purchasers who were all in the process of decision making shows emphatically that buyers are considering VoIP solutions for their telephony needs above all other possibilities.

JAJAH announces the beta-launch of its Twitter calling solution, JAJAH@call. Qualified JAJAH users with a Twitter account can now make phone calls via Twitter free of charge. @calls are made without revealing your number and without needing to know the number of the person you wish to call -- all you need is their Twitter username.

Tpad have announced that their Pipecall VoIP service is to close within the next 30 days due to difficulties in maintaining acceptable levels of reliability and have left customers in an awkward position of having to do the administration work themselves if they want to keep their current number.

Tpad, who take pride in their simple, yet effective VoIP and telephony solutions have put together a VoIP offering to allow their customers to seamlessly transfer to a new provider without any difficulties or lengthy paperwork to complete.

Phone.com announces that all customers will be able to take advantage of service upgrades including call recording, advanced call screening, and call tagging, all offered at no extra cost.

Call Recording enables customers to record a call. Once the call record key is hit both parties will hear a notification that their call is being recorded. When the call record key is hit a second time a notification will inform the participant that the recording has ended. Calls may be recorded for a select part of the conversation or for the entire call. The recorded calls may then be accessed online as a .wav file from within the customer's control panel.

Interfuture Systems strengthens its product portfolio with the right mix of professional services and suppliers and has completed its negotiations with a leading Hosted VoIP provider and is now a formal accredited reseller. This further development to its portfolio means that ISL can now offer both leading edge, full localised VoIP solutions through standalone PBX installations at its clients sites but now also offers companies who are a start up businesses or who do not want the capital costs of an internal telephone PBX system by fully outsourcing it.

Vopium has joined the Symbian Foundation, which, together with its ecosystem, is creating the most proven, open and complete mobile software platform. The platform is based on Symbian OS and software assets contributed by Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, and Sony Ericsson, including the S60 and MOAP user interfaces.

FreedomVOICE announced the launch of a nationwide contest to find the most valuable small business tip. FreedomVOICE will be holding the small business tip contest on the new FreedomVOICE Blog.

“The new FreedomVOICE Blog will be a vibrant area for company and industry news, discussion, and frequently asked questions,” says Eric Thomas, CEO of FreedomVOICE. “But overall, the main purpose of the blog is to act as a resource for small businesses across the nation. We are holding this small business tip contest on the new FreedomVOICE Blog to open up the floor for constructive dialogue.”

XConnect raises $10 million in Series B funding. A consortium of investors, including Venrock Associates, Accel Partners, Grazia Equity and Crescent Point Group, participated. The financing will enable London-based XConnect to continue expanding its "Interconnect 2.0" portfolio, which includes Carrier ENUM-registry and multimedia interconnection hub services.

Interconnect 2.0 offers the most comprehensive suite of services to meet operators' growing needs to efficiently deliver new revenue-generating multimedia services, such as high-definition voice and video, across IP networks, while increasing service quality and reducing costs.

Digium and Vestec partner to provide a robust, low-cost speech recognition engine for use with the open source Asterisk telephony platform. Vestec’s speech engine significantly lowers the cost barrier for introducing feature-rich speech recognition with Asterisk and provides the Asterisk community with a powerful means to enhance the customer experience as well as to generate new revenue.

TalkSwitch announces that its VoIP-enabled phone systems have been tested and approved for interoperability with the Titan Communications 'SIP Plus' SIP Trunking Service. Titan's SIP Plus SIP Trunking Service provides all the basics, including unlimited local calling, caller ID, directory listing, 911 service and local phone numbers. Additionally, small business customers benefit from virtually unlimited long distance (2000 minutes per month with every SIP trunk anywhere in the continental United States and Canada), along with virtual numbers, virtual local calling areas and unlimited phone numbers (DID).

Voxbone announces that its international, geographically-independent number service, iNum, now supports HD voice. iNum adds a missing piece -- a uniform identifier -- to enable HD calling. As long as both endpoints are HD-enabled, calls to iNum numbers will convey a sound quality that far surpasses traditional circuit-switched telephony.

Mobile VoIP is moving beyond its initial function as a new mechanism to get inexpensive international calls, reports In-Stat. While Mobile VoIP still poses a direct threat to operator voice revenue, it also represents a dynamic new capability that promises numerous applications. In-Stat projects that by 2013 Mobile VoIP applications will generate annual revenues of $32.2 billion, driven by over 278 million registered users worldwide.

VoIP Monitor is please to sponsor the VoIP Conference and Expo at Illinois Institute of Technology. VoIP Monitor readers may get a discounted rate of $100 (normal price is $150) by using this link to register - http://www.cpd.iit.edu/voipconference09. As you register use the registration type of "Society" to get your discount.