The title is a paraphrase of Mark Twain, in response to rumors of his demise. Now we know how he felt.
Over the past few days, FreedomVoice has been getting quite a few rather shocking phone calls and emails, inquiring about our financial condition. Turns out, another unrelated telecom company named Freedom Communications USA declared bankruptcy in Tennessee last week. Due to the likeness of our names, a lot of people thought we were the ones filing for Chapter 11. Negative.
Before I go on, let me make it clear: we’re not the “Freedom” telecom company going bankrupt. And we’ve been through this before. We appreciate your concern, but we want you to know we’re doing better than ever.
In a seemingly unnecessary move, that frankly wasted the time of everyone involved, when they should be focused on important issues like continued exponential growth in market penetration, hosted VoIP service providers and other industry experts convened yesterday on the topic of how to pronounce the word string of letters, “VoIP”.
A House Divided
The conference was largely separated into two camps: those that pronounce VoIP as “voyp” and those that spell out the abbreviation as “v-o-i-p”. Minority parties included those that still say the full, “Voice over Internet Protocol,” and those that only abbreviate the latter words as, “Voice over IP”…
Are you locked into outdated, proprietary VoIP phone equipment? Looking for a good way out without facing a crushing capital expense?
Then there’s no better time to swap out your old, frustrating VoIP phones for a scalable, feature-rich FreedomIQ Hosted VoIP PBX. That’s because right now Polycom is offering a rebate of up to $100 each for your old desktop phones when you trade them in for one of their powerful SoundPoint IP VoIP phones.
So I was brushing up on industry news and something struck me. Whether you work in hosted VoIP PBX or not, everyone in the communications industry is in app frenzy. It’s insane!
Not surprisingly, “open” was a common theme at the show. In a keynote address Tuesday morning, Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao touted his company’s openness to content providers, app stores and application developers while also chastising companies like Google and Yahoo! for what he considers their potentially monopolistic hold on the Internet search and advertising market. And Vodafone was not alone. Newly minted GSMA member Verizon Wireless also pushed its open message during a press conference with Skype announcing a custom Skype Mobile application for its smartphones.
Not sure if you heard yet or not, but Skype and Verizon have announced that they’ve been working to develop an always-on Skype Mobile app. Holy cow, can you believe it?! Can you imagine the implications! Let’s talk about this and what it all means for the hosted VoIP sector of the business VoIP industry.
So, “What does this technology do exactly?” you ask. “Good question,” we say.
Well, the app will basically allow for unlimited Skype-to-Skype calls. Doesn’t seem that cool now that you know this is the only function, huh? But here is the kicker. According to Fierce VoIP, “the app will allow for unlimited Skype-to-Skype calls and cheap international calls at Skype’s VoIP rates.” Apparently you also need a data plan. But who doesn’t have a data plan now-a-day anyways. So basically the app can save you money on international calls. But there is more to this if you are a hosted VoIP PBX fan…
Well, today is President’s Day but the dedicated staff at FreedomVoice is in the office working hard to take our hosted VoIP PBX, FreedomIQ, to the next level. We already offer a range of advances and innovative features you can’t find anywhere else, but we want to make the business VoIP service even better, blowing away every other offering on the market.
While this may be true, the holiday got me thinking. What does Presidents Day have to do with hosted VoIP? What are the similarities? Here are a few items I came up with.
Lately I’ve been doing a lot of research on business VoIP and hosted VoIP PBX. This has resulted in encouraging enlightenment. So, in the name of helping mankind, I am listing excellent free facts on the past, present and future of the hosted VoIP market below. I will also provide commentary on each stat, to give you some background info.
Some interesting news was just released today; Broadsoft and Polycom are teaming up to deliver an integrated unified communications platform. Here is what it’s all about.
Essentially, the new platform, known as V2Connet, brings together Polycom’s Open Collaboration Network and Broadsofts Broadworks VoIP application platform. The goal of this business VoIP focused endeavor is to create a combined offering, giving service providers a unified voice and video solution in a hosted service. Not a bad idea, right? But where do current hosted VoIP PBX providers, many of which are devote fans of Polycom VoIP phones, fit in.
As all you business VoIP fans know, the Apple iPad has just been released. Looks like a cool device, right? Like an iPhone, the screen adjusts to the phones positioning. It has crystal clear viewing capabilities for video and photos. And the touch screen… I mean wow! We’ve never really see navigation quite like this.
While this all may be true, the question is buzzing around, who is the iPad really meant for? Is there a consumer demand driving this product supply or is Apple looking to create a new demand, like they did with the iPod.
The Polycom SoundPoint IP 560 is a brand new HD VoIP phone that is creating a serious buzz in the hosted VoIP PBX world. The VoIP phone offers four-lines and call delivery with industry leading business VoIP clarity. As one of Polycoms most popular new business VoIP phones, the 560 supports a comprehensive range of hosted VoIP features enabled to integrate with a wide range of network infrastructures. Watch the video below to learn more about the Polycom SoundPoint IP 560 VoIP phone.
As hosted VoIP PBX enthusiasts, our ears perk up when people start making predictions about the future of business VoIP technology. So when Skype CEO Josh Silverman made a bold prediction in a blog on GigaOm today, we were all ears.
Silverman’s post commented on the importance of video to VoIP, nothing new there. But what he said was that he believes it to be the game changer for VoIP communications. Silverman feels that VoIP video falls in line with our most basic form of communication, speaking face to face. He feels that writing and telephone calls are simply secondary communication mediums.
According to TMCnet, Wainhouse Research just released a new report stating that, “the UC (Unified Communications) market is projected to reach $30 billion by 2013.” This is great news for everyone using hosted VoIP PBX as their business VoIP solution. It’s also excellent news for those in the hosted VoIP industry.
Here are some highlights for you business VoIP fans…
So I saw Avatar last night. I must say that is was an awesome movie. But I couldn’t help but think to myself, “What if an Avatar character was in a vicious fight with business VoIP, who would win?” Here is what I came up with…
Call Quality
Now avatars have that little thing in their hair which allows them to communicate with all living things. The connection seems very secure and reliable, which is good.
