Pinger, a startup based in San Jose, California, aims to challenge Skype (and others) by offering free voice calls. They are doing so by piggybacking voip on their hugely popular TextFree application, which allows sending free text SMS messages. Pinger is currently serving 1.2 billion ads and sent 4 billion messages each month and is only expected to raise its numbers.
Voice Over IP News
VoIP and unified communication service providers – Broadvox and Cypress Communications – announced the signing of a merger agreement. While both companies deliver a hosted VoIP and hosted unified communications solution, neither customer base is expected to be affected by the merger. Customers using Cypress’ C4 IP product and those using Broadvox’s GO!VBX will see no changes in their current feature sets, phones, or technology platforms.
snom, a German developer and manufacturer of SIP devices, has announced the release of snom ONE – a new family of IP PBX systems that runs on standard servers. According to the company, snom ONE will provide customers with an IP telephony system which supports all the functionalities of snom IP phones.
8×8 announced it has signed a partnership agreement with Polycom enabling it to offer Polycom’s IP telephony and conferencing solutions to 8×8 Virtual Office hosted VoIP subscribers.
IPsmarx Technology and VoIP Innovations have announced compatibility and API Integration for local and toll free DIDs. According to the companies, this integration will enable VoIP service providers to easily and quickly offer services to a new market.
Two weeks after releasing fringOut that enables users to make cheap calls to any regular landline or mobile phone anywhere in the world, with rates as low as 1¢ a minute, fring announced the service is now available for Android phones.
Skype has just announced the release of Skype for Android, a client for mobile handsets, built for smartphones running Android OS version 2.1 or above. In the US, Skype for Android calling works over WiFi only. Outside the US the app works over WiFi or mobile data connection (GPRS, EDGE, 3G).
Avaya and Skype have announced a strategic agreement to deliver communications and collaboration solutions to businesses of all sizes. The multi-phase deal includes both go-to-market and a joint technology integration.
According to a recent survey undertaken by the Customer Experience Foundation (CEF) on behalf of Empirix, 79 percent of consumers have experienced poor voice quality. The study asked 3,925 consumers about their experiences in dealing with contact centers.
Grandstream has extended the portfolio of its GXP series enterprise SIP telephones with the introduction of the new GXP2110. Based on Grandstream’s broadly interoperable SIP stack, “the GXP2110 SIP telephone delivers superior HD audio quality for crystal clear voice communications, packed IP telephony features and integrated Web applications, as well as support for highly flexible XML customization and strong security protection,” as the company says.