TMCnet's SIP Week in Review

By Stefania Viscusi

TMCnet Assistant Editor

 

Welcome to this weeks edition of TMCnet's SIP Week in Review. While winter may be slowly passing us by, SIP Week in Review continues to offer you something to read while you sip a hot beverage and keep warm indoors.

 

Speaking of hot, SIP news had some interesting highlights this week.

 

Pingtel (News - Alert) Corp. announced the launch of a new version of SIPxchange. The launch of version 3.6 of SIPxchange ECS is a bid to improve features and bring down operational costs while enhancing flexibility. The solution is also aimed at improved call clarity for better overall communications.

TMCnet's Rahul Prabhakar  wrote, "Pingtel Corp. is a name to reckon with amongst providers of SIP-based Enterprise Communications Systems (ECS), who aid corporations in building a smooth and reliable communications network. Pingtel offers enterprise class communications platforms that are 100 percent SIP-based and easy to incorporate. Customized according to the features and requirements of a business organization, Pingtel’s services form core support structures to any corporation."

Also this week, Motorola (News - Alert) announced that their Ojo Video Phone will interoperate with other video phones so long as they use the H.263 and G729 video and audio codecs.

 

TMCnet's Johanne Torres reported that WorldGate Communications interoperability testing found, "through Ojo's implementation of SIP, H.264 video codec and iLBC audio codec, the devices demonstrated "improved levels of performance in video telephony." The firm found however, that previous generation video phones which use the H.323 communications protocol, the H.263 video codec, and the G729 audio codec, were not interoperable with Ojo's more advanced technologies.

Internet telephone company Tpad announced this week they will offer customers a free incoming SIP number so users of softphones and SIP based devices receive free, unlimited inbound calls.

 

TMCnet's Beverly Maniago reported, "Most VoIP companies in the telecom industry today charge their customers for this SIP number. Steven Johns, Marketing Manager for Tpad, believes that it's only fair to give customers free SIP numbers, he said, "We believe that it is unfair to charge people just for a number to receive calls -- that's why we give all our customers a free number. We understand that each member of a household may want their own unique number so we offer as many numbers as the customer wants."

 

The new SIP number also comes with free voicemail and call forwarding and gives users the ability to place free calls to other Tpad users.

 

Polycom (News - Alert) also made SIP-related news this week with the introduction of the RMX 2000 Platform for Multipoint Conferencing.

 

With the new platform, enterprise users are given the ability to manage multipoint video and unified conferencing services.

The new platform which starts at $53,000 is based on industry standards like SIP and H.323 and delivers on-demand, real-time conferencing and collaboration services over IP networks.

 

Joe Sigrist, senior vice president and general manager of network systems for Polycom, was quoted as saying, “The RMX 2000 enables people with different devices on the road, at the desktop, in a conference room, or in a telepresence suite to collaborate instantaneously, thereby improving an organization's productivity, efficiency, and time to market. The RMX 2000, alongside the ReadiConvene and MGC+, provides our customers with a comprehensive portfolio of audio, video, and unified conferencing solutions.”

 

 

Yours truly reported this week a new platform from Telanetix (News - Alert) offers interoperability between their telepresence solution and video conferencing systems.

 

The new platform offers the option of participating in meetings using the standard H.263 and H.264 SIP enabled video conferencing systems.

 

Using the new platform will make it easier for users to connect with others regardless of the video conferencing solution or system being used and through a mix of hardware and software components, make seamless connectivity possible.

 

The company has said they will provide the new platform by the end of the first quarter of 2007.

 

Speech technology provider Loquendo also made some SIP-related announcements this week.

 

Together with other providers VoxPilot and Speech Village,  Loquendo is offering service developers and application designers a faster, more  cost efficient way to bring interactive voice services to market with the Silver Bullet.

 

The Silver Bullet solution supports both ISDN and Voice over IP (SIP), telecom interconnects. And the integrated AudioCodes gateway provides E1/T1 connectivity to the PSTN. It is also available in configurations of 12 and 24 ports in a single box and is expandable to thousands of ports.

 

Loquendo also announced that their speech technologies are now interoperable with PIKA Technologies' (News - Alert) Digital T1/E1 PrimeNet MM boards, via Paraxip PSTN-to-SIP Gateway software. This interoperability helps system integrators and service developers better create voice services and automation features as well as Unified Messaging and infomobility solutions.

 

 

 

 

 

That wraps up this weeks highlights in SIP news, if you find you're still enjoying your warm beverage and your cups not empty just yet, jump on to TMCnet.com for all the latest in SIP news as it happens!

 

See also: SIP Magazine, SIP Server Channel, Unified Communications Channel, SIP Trunking Channel