VoIP Week in Review from TMCnet

By Johanne Torres

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

 

This week, the VoIP Minute Watch brought you news from Vonage (News - Alert), Time Warner, 8x8 and Skype (News - Alert).

 

Despite adding a whopping 256,000 subscribers during 2006's second quarter, VoIP service provider Vonage Holdings Corp. on Tuesday reported losses totaling $74 million during this period, due mostly to operational and marketing costs.

 

Vonage, however reported having added 1,005,000 net subscriber lines during the 12 months ending on June 30, 2006. The company ended the second quarter with over 1,853,000 total subscriber lines, an increase of 16 percent from the prior quarter and 119 percent above the year-ago level.

 

On Wednesday, Time Warner Telecom announced it was tapped by Wisconsin-based Waukesha State Bank for the installation of a suite of voice and data services, including Ethernet Internet Services (EIS) for its 18 locations.

 

The telecom's Internet, voice and data services will support the financial institution's nine full-service branch locations as well as its headquarters communications requirements. Waukesha State Bank also inked a contract for a 10 Mbps point-to-point native LAN Ethernet connection between its data center and the Time Warner Telecom collocation site to support Waukesha State Bank's ongoing disaster recovery efforts. The services will also support the bank's banking, e-commerce, online bill pay, mortgages and teller transactions.

 

Also on Wednesday, VoIP and video service provider 8x8 introduced the Packet8 Softalk, a video-enabled SIP softphone for use with Packet8 voice and video Internet phone services.

 

Packet8 Softalk will allow subscribers to make and receive voice and video phone calls directly from their personal computers. Along with traditional landlines and cell phones, Softalk users can also call Packet8 VideoPhone subscribers to carryout video communications when traveling without needing to tote along a separate device.

 

On Friday, Skype announced it certified security risk management provider McAfee's Internet Security Suite 2006, the McAfee VirusScan 2006, and the McAfee Personal Firewall 2006 products. The companies made the announcement this week.

 

Now Skype-certified, McAfee Internet Security Suite and VirusScan will add an extra layer of protection for files sent using the Skype file transfer function through a scanning process by the Skype-certified McAfee products. Skype calls and chats will be protected using Skype’s encryption technology.

 

There you have it folks, another exciting week in the VoIP industry! Stay tuned and read the VoIP Minute Watch for the latest news…