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AT&T announced last month that its new and existing VPN customers may now add VoIP service to the network solution delivered over AT&T's global network cloud. This option to incorporate voice as a converged VPN application is designed to help customers to consolidate separate "voice and data networks, reduce equipment and maintenance costs, and simplify migrating these complimentary capabilities to a common, secure infrastructure," according to AT&T.

This weekend will offer some of the last barbecue opportunities for the summer with the Labor Day holiday on Monday. As such, we won't be publishing on Monday like we normally do. Enjoy your long weekend! -Mike

Sean Buckley over at FierceTelecom sat down with 360Networks CTO Brady Adams to talk about wholesale services and migrating from legacy to next gen networks. Interview

Competition in the consumer VoIP market is heating up. With all the new players in the consumer VoIP market offering free/cheap calls, price wars are bound to happen. Truphone offers mobile VoIP calls from the iPhone, iPod, iPad, Nokia and Android phones has reduced the cost of if calling plans.

The mobile VoIP company has dropped its unlimited calling plan down to $12.95 per month. The TruUnlimited plan lets callers make unlimited mobile calls to landlines in 38 countries worldwide any time of the day, any day of the week. The service also allows unlimited calls to mobile phones in 9 countries including the USA and China.

For those not opting for the unlimited plan, calls to popular countries are now as low as 2.1 cents per minute. (They were around 5 cents before). The rate applies mainly to landlines with calls to mobiles being more expensive. Additionally there is a 4.8 cent connection fee per call.

Calls between Truphone customers over WiFi and 3G are still free (of course you have to pay for your own data service).

For more:
- read this article

Related articles:
Truphone puts its VoIP on iPad
Truphone's mobile VoIP and SIM card combination catches attention

Unified communications as a service provider CallTower is teaming with Sprint to launch CallTower Mobility a fixed mobile convergence service for their UC offerings.

Companies using Sprint's mobile network can use CallTower Mobility to add UC solutions to their mobile and fixed corporate phones.  The solution adds another way companies can eliminate expensive hardware and infrastructure investments, long and complex deployments, and ongoing support and upgrade challenges.

The Sprint Mobile Integration service allows users to dial an extension number from a Sprint mobile phone and reach a corporate user regardless of their location as well as access to one central voicemail, free on-net calling and enhanced call management and messaging features. The CallTower UC Mobility service provides access to the other CallTower Unified Communications productivity applications such as unified messaging, presence, IM and collaboration.

For more:
- read the release

Related articles:
Sprint enhances VoIP services for cable companies
Sprint's wireline revenue down, but wholesale VoIP going strong

Sure, we took the rumors of Cisco purchasing Skype with a grain of salt (remember when Cisco was buying Nokia?), but it's not that far fetched right? The aftermath of the rumor mill has some analysts showing how the deal would work.

Over at Connected Planet, Rich Karpinski deconstructs the rumor and finds the time is right for the deal. Skype would fit into Cisco's VoIP portfolio without confusing customers as its core enterprise VoIP offerings are already well established. Telecoms are willing to work with the Skype brand and Karpinski sees owning Skype as a way for Cisco to learn how to build better networks for deploying over-the-top software applications.

GigaOm sees the Skype opportunity as a way for Cisco to add a 'freemium' service to their arsenal. Small companies and startups like unified communications as much as anyone else, but they'd prefer to use Skype for free rather than invest in a big ticket system from Cisco. But as Matt Asay at GigaOm says, those small companies do sometimes grow up and when they do, they can be upsold into the Cisco enterprise world.

For more:
- read Connected Planet
- read GigaOm

Related articles:
Rumor Mill: Cisco buying Skype?
Skype *was* missing from iPhone App Store

Sprint (NYSE: S) debuted its Partner Interexchange Network (PIN) for its business customers in October 2009, creating a community of partners to exchange VoIP service between each other while operating on Sprint's global Tier 1 IP network. The business-to-business wholesale voice traffic exchange has signed up MSOs, ILECs, CLECs, with the partner base standing at 67 million phone numbers. Sprint sees that number growing to 100 million by the end of the year.

As an incentive for new players to sign up, Sprint is introducing termination-only PIN allowing customers to make interconnection arragangments with Sprint's on-net PIN community and their off-net routes. The new offer will provide a migration path for service providers to become on-net PIN partners.

To help new members lower their voice termination costs, Sprint has introduced its termination-only PIN, a service that allows customers to establish interconnection arrangement with Sprint's on-net PIN community and their off-net routes. In addition to lowering costs Sprint says the new offering can serve as a migration path for service providers to become an on-net PIN partner. While Sprint's traditional TDM-based long-distance voice traffic has continued to decline, the PIN is creating a foundation for the growing base of VoIP services.

For more:
- see the release here
- read the FierceTelecom coverage

Related news:
Sprint offers PIN VoIP service using SIP for cost savings
Sprint enhances VoIP services for cable companies
Sprint announces new unified communications offerings

Skype has officially launched Skype Connect 1.0 (formerly Skype for SIP). The service was previously available as a beta version, and it is used by businesses to connect Skype to an IP-enabled private branch exchange (PBX) or unified communications systems.

Cavalier, a telecom service provider, has expanded its SIP-base services. The new offerings will smooth the transition for companies looking to install IP voice services and add more capabilities to their business communications portfolio.

Cavalier's SIP service is based on Metaswitch's voice and multimedia platform. The platform offers traditional features like call re-direct, direct inward dial, calling name display, E-911 up to advanced things like enterprise-shared trunking and private dial plans. Cavalier provides the IP voice service. The SIP offering will be modular allowing Cavalier customers to choose parameters including the choice of bandwidth, number of concurrent calls, voice compression, Internet speed, private network options, and security and calling features.

"These new service options make a SIP trunk the obvious choice for businesses looking for a feature-rich alternative to a TDM T1 or for those converting to an all-IP infrastructure," said Clint McDonald, product manager, Cavalier in a release. "With a converged network, SIP traffic is transmitted securely along with a variety of other applications and protocols, creating bandwidth efficiencies for customers."

For more:
- read the release

Related news:
Grandstream CPEs interoperable with Metaswitch Networks
Metaswitch grabs service broker vendor AppTrigger
SureWest to use Metaswitch's Metasphere for business customers

Finding qualified job candidates for open positions at your company is never an easy task. But FierceVoIP has found a way to make the process simpler and easier for you and your Human Resources department.

By using our new Web interface, you can advertise for an open position, purchase an enhanced listing, and manage your postings online.

Let us help you streamline your hiring process by connecting you to more than 350,000 telecom network and content professionals.  To get started, click here. -- Jason

The big moves continue. While Google Voice calls are still not available to that company's Apps business customers, Skype has taken the beta tag off of their Skype Connect business VoIP offering.

What does it mean? Well, according to the company, Skype Connect has over 2,400 global customers so far and it's certified for products from Avaya, Cisco, SIPfoundry, ShoreTel and other OEM. New business customers can use Skype Connect with their existing PBX and UC systems to make outbound calls from desktop phones to landlines and mobiles worldwide at Skype's discounted long distance rates and receive calls from landlines or mobile phones in the corporate PBX using Skype's online numbers purchased separately. They can also receive inbound calls from Skype connected users worldwide with Skype's Click & Call buttons placed on company website and manage Skype calls using their existing PBX or UC systems' features such as call routing, automatic call distribution, conferencing, auto-attendant, voicemail, call recording and logging.

With the latest acquisition rumors, the IPO imminent, and the competition heating up, it will be interesting to see how the SMB world takes to Skype's offering.

For more:
- read the company blog post
- read GigaOm's commentary

Related news:
Skype filing reveals company's worries, strategy
Skype for SIP adds new IP PBXs and gateways for SMBs

Skype has launched a Session Initiation Protocol-based voice service for businesses that integrates free and low-cost calling into corporate IP PBXs, providing an opportunity to add voice features to corporate Web sites and to cut back on some phone expenses.

Today I bring you a story that has it all: a solar-powered, low-cost, open source cellular network that's revolutionizing coverage in underprivileged and off-grid spots. It uses VoIP yet works with existing cell phones. It has pedigreed founders. Best of all, it is part of the sex, drugs and art collectively known as Burning Man. Where do you want me to begin?

Cisco is reportedly looking to buy Skype before the Internet phone provider goes public.

The latest Inc. 5000 is out and among the list of the fastest growing companies are some of the businesses we highlight here are FierceVoIP. What I find most interesting about the way Inc. discusses these companies is that it looks at their last three years of growth. With the economy the way it has been in the last three years, you'd be hard pressed to imagine some of the impressive growth numbers these companies have put up.

VOX Network Solutions which offers design, maintenance and installation of converged voice and data services including IP telephony, unified communications as well as mobile services makes the list at #160. The Nortel partner was ranked #2 Best Place to Work in San Francisco, but according to Inc., most of those employees practice what they preach and telecommute. Back in December, the company launched a mobile VoIP app and recently it launched a service geared towards military families. The company has experienced 1736% growth over the last three years!

Coming in at #254 is Vocalocity--a company that experienced 1218% growth over a three year period. Acquired by ZivVa in 2006, the company has turned its VocalOS VoIP soft-switch technology into a hosted environment to develop voice applications rapidly. The VocalocityPBX runs atop of VocalOS solution. Over the last few months Vocalocity has had a number of funding rounds with the most recent bringing in $3.45 million. Vocalocity focuses on small businesses with 50 customers or less and offers all of its own VoIP technology so that they can handle all of their customer needs where some other companies might need outside technicians to service third-party devices.

Another company that we follow quite regularly that is featured in the Inc. 5000 is GENBAND at #690. Recently purchasing Nortel CVAS and launching its combined roadmap and GENius abstraction layer platform, GENBAND, the IP applications, switching and service solutions company, has made some big moves over the last year. GENBAND's IP solutions are deployed by two thirds of the world's 100 largest service providers. GENBAND saw 445% growth over the last three years.

It is great to see some companies in our industry posting huge numbers and making the Inc. 5000 list. It shows that the VoIP sector is still a place of innovation and growth. With these companies showing such success in even some of the worst of times, it's a great indicator of how well our industry at large is doing. Check out the Inc. 5000 here.--Mike

The mobile VoIP market is still wide open. Well, according to TheStreet.com's analysis it is. With most mobile phone owners still opting to pay for a voice plan in conjunction with their data plan, it would appear that the VoIP mobile market still hasn't quite caught on, but the opportunity is ripe.

TheStreet notes that only AT&T's data plan offering for the iPad and iPod Touch truly provides the possibility of a mobile-VoIP-only phone. With AT&T, a user can get a data-only plan for between $14.99 and $25 and install a VoIP app like Skype to make mobile data VoIP calls without the hindrance of a costly voice plan. At the moment there are few other offers out there that would allow a smart phone owner to purchase only data and go solely VoIP over mobile, but that's where the opportunity lies.

An interesting note is TheStreet's hopes for Clearwire. The data-only mobile broadband service is situated to take advantage of the mobile VoIP trend with its highspeed, low-latency, inexpensive service. Clearwire has its own troubles and even recently signalled it would be switching its network to LTE, but the data-only play does make it a natural fit for mobile VoIP if it could just market its service that way.

For more:
- read the analysis

Related articles:
More VoIP coming to BlackBerry
Ten Mobile VoIP Apps for the iPhone

It's always nice to have a test run before going live with a product for your customers. In the current market where telecom networks are in a state of transition and IP is replacing the old school TDM-based networks, it would be nice to make sure everything runs smoothly before putting live customers on the wires. One of the things quality assurance company Empirix offers is the ability to do just that, and China Mobile recently took them up on the offer.

Empirix Hammer for IMS provided a large scale end-user simulation to verify the performance and functionality of the China Mobile's voice, video and data applications on their new IMS network. The tests, prior to going live, provided the massive mobile company an assurance that their data network was ready for their 550 million customers. The large scale IMS network is set to offer mobile, IP and IMS services to users throughout China.

The Hammer for IMS solution used by China Mobile consists of the Hammer G5 multi-media IP network test platform and the Hammer DEX device emulation system. The Hammer G5 provides load performance and service quality assurance for VoIP, NGN, IMS, IP telephony and unified communications applications throughout the technology lifecycle while the Hammer DEX offers the ability to emulate a wide variety of different network devices and IMS functions to test a particular network component in isolation, under real network conditions.

For more:
- read the release

Related news:
Suddenlink deploy's Empirix Hammer XMS to ensure QOS
360networks brings on Empirix for monitoring and troubleshooting

Speaking of Google's perceived VoIP dominance, the first 24 hours of the new VoIP calling service was quite a show of force. According to Mashable, Google connected one million calls in the first 24 hours of being live.

The one million calls were apparently all of the free variety connecting calls within the US or Canada. Google says that they will keep such calls free for the rest of the year with no indication of how that pricing structure will change after the deadline. The first one million calls was a clear indication of the power of Google's product launching capabilities and with over 176 million users by last count (back in 2009!). Google's Gmail service has put VoIP calling on the screens of many more users.

For more:
- read the post

Related news:
Google VoIP goes live, but it still has a few tricks up its sleeves
Google VoIP goes live in your Gmail
Frost & Sullivan: Google moving into UCC

Reliable sources in the blogosphere aren't always that reliable, but they do make for good stories. Lighting up this Monday's rumor news wires is the tale that Cisco has made an offer on Skype prior to their big IPO--courtesy of TechCrunch. The blog offers no confirmation of the rumors only to say that the source is 'reliable.'

With Google launching its VoIP service last week, the world of desktop-based VoIP calling has been all stirred up. What will Skype do? What will other softphone-based VoIP offerings do? What will Vonage do with its click-to-call Facebook app? Now that Google VoIP is here, shouldn't everyone else just bow out? No, that would be incredibly boring. Instead, perhaps Skype and Cisco will team to let Google know whose boss in the space. The Wall Street Journal has mused that the Google VoIP launch will serve to accelerate the Skype IPO--but perhaps it will also accelerate others to try to acquire the company.

TechCrunch goes on to say that the Skype IPO was planned to be around $5 billion, so if a suitor was negotiating prior to the offering, they'd be bidding in that range. Not a cheap way to challenge Google's perceived dominance.

For more:
- read the TechCrunch post
- read the WSJ Skype IPO/Google VoIP article

Related news:
Skype to launch $100 million IPO
Skype vs. Fring: What does it mean for SkypeKit developers?

Desktop Video conferencing is exciting, but the demands that its widespread adoption would make on enterprise network are staggering. John Bartlett of NetForcast digs into the idea of two different classes of bandwidth for video in the enterprise. No Jitter Article