Comcast connects Skype HD videoconferencing to the living room TV

05/22/12

In advance of this year's NCTA "The Cable Show" being held in Boston, Comcast launched its Skype on Xfinity service, offering HD videoconferencing to Comcast consumers in Atlanta, Boston, Augusta, Ga., Chicago, Detroit, Harrisburg, Pa., Indianapolis, Miami, Seattle and Pittsburgh. Additional markets will launch through the summer.

Webtorials: UC for the WAN and BYOD for the WLAN

05/18/12

As we repack our bags between trade shows, we'd like to highlight a reader resource from Webtorials to consider: A discussion titled "Unified Communications and WAN Performance -- A Delicate Balance," sponsored by Ipanema Technologies, is now available.

Avaya simplifies BYOD connectivity; EarthLink adds to cloud service

05/16/12

Avaya has enhanced its portfolio to deliver unified wired and wireless network access to employees, guests and their personal devices while maintaining enterprise security. The changes were announced at Interop 2012 just held in Las Vegas.

Plantronics continues to evolve devices

05/11/12

Two items for this edition: First, Plantronics continues to evolve its devices, extending device intelligence beyond unified communications awareness into intelligence that can be integrated with other applications. In other news, Mitel has announced a new cloud-based service as the next evolutionary step for its Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) portfolio.

Interop 2012: Four announcements from ShoreTel

05/08/12

With both Interop in Las Vegas and CTIA Wireless in New Orleans underway this week, the news inbox is getting full but today we'll start with four announcements from ShoreTel. ShoreTel has introduced new collaboration tools, a new remote monitoring service, a new M5 Portal for cloud customers, and a new bundle with a promotional incentive that includes elements from ShoreTel, Polycom and HP solutions.

Trends: The evolution of broadband

05/04/12

Most top-tier network service providers have reported their Q1 2012 results, and we've seen the same trends continue from previous quarters: legacy voice services from traditional providers continue to decline in favor of wireless substitution and replacement by digital (VoIP) services. Cable companies continue to see a net gain for digital voice, although the growth rate continues to be in the slow single digits; much of this net growth is driven by small businesses converting to VoIP.

Cincinnati Bell, EarthLink announce new cloud services

05/01/12

Two announcements of new cloud services we'd like to highlight this week, followed by some recent advice on hosted services courtesy of Webtorials' contributors. 

UC&C observations on Google Drive

04/27/12

Google has entered the digital storage and collaboration market with Google Drive, the latest in a portfolio of Google services that extend beyond Google's traditional search business. Initially, Google Drive is accessible from PCs, Macs and mobile devices that run on an Android operating system.

Mobile VoIP: Deployment considerations

04/24/12

We recently had the opportunity to talk with a representative from Digicel Jamaica about the implications of voice over IP (VoIP) running over a mobile network. Digicel Jamaica is part of the Digicel Group, which has 11.5 million customers across 31 markets in the Caribbean, Central America and the Pacific. In the phone interview, Garry Malins, the Jamaica Networks security manager, shared some of the issues with VoIP for mobile carriers.

Orange introduces cloud-based telepresence

04/20/12

Today, we'll highlight two announcements in the news from Orange Business Services on its telepresence services, along with an update from Vonage on its success and plans with mobility.

Avaya offers hosted UC solutions, partners with Level 3

04/17/12

In two separate announcements late last month, Avaya unveiled and strengthened its collaboration offers with a "Collaborative Cloud" strategic framework for cloud-based collaboration solutions, followed with an announcement about a Level 3 Communications partnership to deliver cloud-based services.

EarthLink partners to bolster its cloud services

04/13/12

Following EarthLink's recent announcement about a partnership with Independence IT to improve EarthLink's portfolio with cloud workspace and overall application virtualization capabilities, we had a chance to discuss EarthLink's evolution. The company has quickly evolved from being a dial-up ISP into a managed communications and IT services provider with a robust portfolio targeting the SMB and enterprise market: in 2010, only 25% of EarthLink's revenue came from businesses, but in 2011 about 71% of the company's $1.3 billion in revenues came from business services.

IntelePeer launches new bundled service offerings; Genband acquires Aztek Networks

04/10/12

Two recent news items make the highlights today: IntelePeer has launched new SIP trunking bundled service offerings, and Genband has made another acquisition -- this time buying gateway technology via Aztek Networks.

ADTRAN adds SBC features to portfolio

04/06/12

Two news items today: ADTRAN recently added Session Border Control (SBC) features in its portfolio of enterprise gateways and routers, and Digium has introduced two new VoIP gateways.

Sprint offers hosted UC

04/03/12

Sprint has launched "Sprint Complete Collaboration," a hosted and fully managed unified communications (UC) bundle designed to meet the needs of midsize and large businesses. The new UC service is powered by Cisco's Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) platform and is delivered over all-IP network.

Enterprise Connect: Genband goes enterprise

03/30/12

In our second newsletter springing from the 2012 Enterprise Connect conference, we note that Genband has announced it is expanding beyond its current client base of service providers into the enterprise communications market -- with a focus on offering unified communications (UC) and SIP trunking solutions to an increasingly mobile workforce.

Enterprise Connect: Comcast offers hosted managed voice portfolio

03/28/12

With more than half a dozen announcements timed to coincide with the Enterprise Connect conference now underway in Orlando, we'll start our news coverage with an announcement from Comcast Business Services. Comcast has unveiled an expanded voice portfolio with its "Business VoiceEdge" a new cloud-based voice and unified communications solution.

NEC announces UNIVERGE Cloud Services UCaaS

03/23/12

NEC recently announced plans for UNIVERGE Cloud Services UCaaS, a set of enhanced software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings. The initial UNIVERGE Cloud Services SaaS offering is unified communications as a service (UCaaS), providing a comprehensive suite of voice, data and video services that feature a Web-based end-user client that can be deployed across any device including a PC, smartphone or tablet.

End-of-year financial results: Telcos vs. cable operators

03/20/12

With all the end-of-year financial results now reported by all the publicly traded top-tier U.S. service providers, we thought we take some time today to look how the telcos and cable companies fared competitively with their business services in general and their VoIP/UC portfolios in particular.

Avaya to boost UC offerings with $230M Radvision acquisition

03/16/12

Avaya announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Radvision, videoconferencing and telepresence technology provider. The acquisition is targeted to provide Avaya's customers an interoperable suite of high-definition video collaboration products, along with the ability to integrate multiple mobile devices such as the Apple iPad and devices powered by Google Android. Plans call for Radvision's enterprise video infrastructure and endpoints to be integrated with the Avaya Aura unified communications (UC) platform.

How to manage UC complexity

03/14/12

For those who have multiple technologies, multiple locations, or multiple vendors in their unified communications deployments, we'd like to recommend a white paper available on Webtorials that looks at managing the complexity of such a portfolio.

Alcatel-Lucent upgrades multimedia communications platform

03/09/12

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise recently introduced improved features on its multimedia communications platform targeting the SMB market with enhancements to the OmniPCX Office, Rich Communication Edition Server. These latest upgrades add to improvements made late last year that included support for fax by email along with the introduction of new DECT phones.

Siemens study: UC deployments save money

03/06/12

Siemens Enterprise Communications recently shared some results of a new study on VoIP and unified communications (UC) deployments among enterprises, and followed the study results with some new upgrades to the company's UC portfolio. Key findings of the survey touched on savings realized in UC deployments, the effect of mobility, and a key roadblock, while the latest release of the company's UC portfolio can help it scale to 500,000 users in a single deployment.

MWC 2012: Broadsoft announces apps targeting enterprise mobile users

03/02/12

In our final news note coming from this year's Mobile Word Congress, BroadSoft has announced availability of two user applications targeting enterprise mobile users. The first applications suite is delivered in a commercially availability version of BroadTouch Business Communicator, with unified communications features incorporated for voice, video, business directories, call logs, instant messaging and presence; a single interface spans a user's mobile devices and platforms, including Windows, Mac, iOS and Android.

GENBAND announces UC solutions at MWC

02/28/12

Several news items this time coming from GENBAND from Mobile World Congress underway in Barcelona. GENBAND has unveiled a mobile app providing consumers with single screen management for unified communications, along with enhancements to the company's IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) platform.

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. Larry Hettick is a principal analyst at Current Analysis.