Voice networking and VoIP

Carphone Warehouse uses business process management to increase customer satisfaction

Retailer Carphone Warehouse is claiming a 25% jump in its customer satisfaction ratings after investing in BPM software to help staff deal with sales, queries and complaints. Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Ofcom grants mobile phone operators right to trade radio spectrum to expand capacity

Telecoms regulator Ofcom has given mobile phone operators rights to trade radio spectrum holdings to help increase mobile network capacity for consumers. Continue Reading

By

• Jenny Williams, University of Gloucestershire

Former T-Mobile employees ordered to pay nearly £80,000 for data theft

The Chester Crown Court has ordered two former employees of UK mobile operator T-Mobile to pay a total of £73,700 after stealing and selling customer data from the company in 2008. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Skype suffers second outage as users locked out

Some Skype users have been unable to sign into accounts after the service suffered a second outage in as many weeks. Continue Reading

By

• Jenny Williams, University of Gloucestershire

Skype users locked out as internet telephony service works on fix

Skype was forced to issue a workaround for users unable to sign into their accounts while the internet telephony service worked on a permanent fix. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

BT and Everything Everywhere trial 800MHz 4G LTE broadband in Newquay

BT and mobile operator Everything Everywhere are seeking 200 volunteers in South Newquay, Cornwall to trial a joint high-speed 4G broadband initiative. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Analysis: What does Microsoft's Skype acquisition mean for businesses?

Microsoft's planned acquisition of internet telephony services firm Skype for $8.5bn has caused quite a stir in the consumer world, but what will it mean for business? Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Google adds real-time traffic data to Android map app

Google has updated its algorithms to support real-time data for its map application for smartphones running on the Android operating system (OS). Continue Reading

By

• Jenny Williams, University of Gloucestershire

3UK offers unlimited data service to pay-as-you-go customers

Mobile phone service 3UK is to launch a £15 per month 'all-you-can-eat' data service for pay as you go customers. Continue Reading

By

• Ian Grant

Azure propels Southampton's Windows Phone 7 balloon above the clouds

Microsoft Azure is helping Southampton University to reach above the clouds in a first-of-its-kind experiment to probe the stratosphere using an unmanned vehicle. Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

UPDATE: Stolen network equipment causes Vodafone UK network outage

The theft of specialist equipment has prevented thousands of users from accessing the Vodafone network. Continue Reading

By

• Jenny Williams, University of Gloucestershire

Intel rolls out high speed cable 'Thunderbolt'

Intel has rolled out a high-speed PC connection technology named Thunderbolt, in collaboration with Apple. Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget

Middle East governments stepping up internet control, study shows

The internet has proved to be a powerful tool for rallying social and political change, but Middle East governments have also recognised their capability to disrupt communications Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Vodafone protests Egyptian government propaganda on network

Vodafone has described the Egyptian authorities' use of its network to send pro-government texts as unacceptable. Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget

Broadband boosts BT profits to £531m

An early return to positive cash flow at Global Services helped BT to produce earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation 7% higher on sales that fell 3% Continue Reading

By

• Ian Grant

Vodafone restores services to Egypt after mobile shutdown

Mobile operator, Vodafone, has restored mobile phone services in Egypt after a 24-hour shutdown. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Tesco rolls out in-store mobile phone network

Supermarket Tesco is rolling out a converged fixed and mobile voice network across its stores based on GSM technology. Cliff Saran finds out how the rollout is progressing. Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Virgin supplies London schools with 10Mbps fibre optic broadband

Virgin Media's business division is to supply a managed fibre optic network to London's Grid for Learning that will replace a broadband network supplied by Symmetrix, a Capita company. Continue Reading

By

• Ian Grant

Rackspace launches system administrator app

Rackspace has launched an app that allows a CIO or system administrator to dial up or take down servers and storage moment by moment. Continue Reading

By

• Ian Grant

Iran gets access to Google Earth, Picasa and Chrome

Google has announced that Iranians are to be able to download Google Earth, Picasa and Chrome, available for the first time following the easing of US export controls. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Vodafone Australia sacks employees over data leak

Vodafone Australia has sacked several people after four million customer records were exposed in a privacy leak Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget

Cambridge village competes with South Korea on broadband speeds

Residents of Broughton have become among the first UK consumers to get access to 1Gbps broadband speeds Continue Reading

By

• Ian Grant

Ofcom frees spectrum for better data, internet access

From Thursday UK mobile network operators will be allowed to offer data services over their 2G networks, giving consumers better indoor and outdoor access... Continue Reading

By

• Ian Grant

Most people who sell their old mobiles don't clear personal data

Just over three quarters of the UK population have sold on old mobile phones, but only 31% wiped all personal information before selling, a survey has revealed. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

CES 2011: Steve Ballmer heralds new era of technology

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer highlighted that the next version of Windows will be the first to run on ARM processors in his keynote address at the opening of the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Unified Comms for the smaller business

Bob Tarzey from Quocirca looks at how smaller businesses can benefit from deploying unified communications Continue Reading

By

• Bob Tarzey

CBI: Eight things you didn’t know about digital communications

Interesting facts from the CBI report, The shape of business – the next 10 years Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Technology of the year award

TechTarget ANZ Editor Simon Sharwood names his Technology of the Year. Do you agree with the choice? Continue Reading

By

• Simon Sharwood

Predictions for 2009

Wondering what will be important in 2009? We've rounded up eight predictions for the year ahead for your reading pleasure. Continue Reading

By

• TechTarget ANZ Staff writers

Ian Yates' quite literal year in review

Ian Yates product reviews are unique and make ideal holiday reading. Continue Reading

By

• Ian Yates

EDITORIAL: Lessons from 2008

TechTarget ANZ's Editorial team looks back on 2008 and suggests new directions for the new year. Continue Reading

By

• TechTarget ANZ Editors

TechTarget ANZ's greatest hits

Here's the end-of-year roundup you wrote - the most popular stories across the TechTarget ANZ network for 2008. Continue Reading

By

• TechTarget ANZ Editors

Richard Chirgwin's Holiday Favourite

There's no better way to prepare for 2009 than reading Richard Chirgwin's networking primers! Continue Reading

By

• Richard Chirgwin

MPLS vs. VPLS vs. Metro Ethernet

MPLS, VPLS and Metro Ethernet are all viable options for large-scale VoIP implementations. Continue Reading

By

• Gary Audin, Delphi Inc.

Unified communications trigger data leakage dangers, survey finds

Companies are concerned about unintentional data leaks, according to a survey conducted by Osterman Research. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Westervelt, TechTarget

Cisco warns of UCM flaws

Cisco has warned that several versions of its Unified Call Managers have security problems. Continue Reading

By

• SearchVoIP.com.au staff

Palm Treo 850 info, photos are leaked

The Palm Treo 850, making an unexpected appearance, was recently leaked. Continue Reading

By

• Antoine Wright

Is echo inherent to VoIP?

VoIP lines are sometimes criticised for delivering more echo than their analog cousins. We explain how to fix the problem in this tip. Continue Reading

By

• TechTarget Staff Writers

Transitioning to unified communications with e-learning

Unified communications is not something every worker can adopt straight away. E-learning tools can ease their path to adoption. Continue Reading

By

• George Lawton

Transitioning to unified communications with e-learning

Unified communications is not something every worker can adopt straight away. E-learning tools can ease their path to adoption. Continue Reading

By

• George Lawton

Cisco Certified Voice Professional lab updates mimic live networks

The new Cisco CCVP certification updates training courses to fall in line with the latest Unified Communications Manager platform. Continue Reading

By

• Michael Morisy, TechTarget

Social connectivity as part of your unified communications strategy

Unified communications provides remote employees the ability to work from a home office, and use social networking sites and IM to collaborate with co-workers. Continue Reading

By

• Zeus Kerravala, ZK Research

Google offers beta of free unified messaging service

Google has opened up GrandCentral, a free unified messaging and phone management service, to a limited beta. Continue Reading

By

• Shamus McGillicuddy, Enterprise Management Associates

Security considerations for unified communications

A successful UC deployment requires a solid understanding of potential security risks and how to avoid various attacks. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

Evaluating messaging and email platforms

Messaging and email systems are incorporating more capabilities than ever. Learn what to think about when upgrading your messaging platform. Continue Reading

By

• Carol Hildebrand

VoIP bandwidth: Calculate consumption

The bandwidth needed for VoIP depends on compression technology, packet overhead and the protocol used. Learn how to figure out what bandwidth you'll need. Continue Reading

By

• Gary Audin, Delphi Inc.

Springer Handbook of Speech Processing

The Springer Handbook of Speech Processing provides the reader vital information needed to implement and understand VoIP. Continue Reading

By

• Jacob Benesty, M. Mohan Sondhi, Yiteng Huang

Early adopters of unified communications need to ask about security

Unified Communications complicates security, which means special care is needed to extract value from the technology. Continue Reading

By

• Shamus McGillicuddy, Enterprise Management Associates

Unified communications market predictions for 2008

Analyst Zeus Kerravala gives his UC market predictions for 2008 so you can get a head start on implementation within your organisation. Continue Reading

By

• Zeus Kerravala, ZK Research

Kris Kringle's guide to Mobility

Many see mobility as the next step from VoIP. It was hot in 2007, and it will remain so in 2008. So get some reading done before the new year comes in. Continue Reading

By

• TechTarget ANZ staff

Holiday IPv6 reading guide

IPv6 was a controversial topic in 2007, and for good reason. Learn more in our holiday guide to IPv6. Continue Reading

By

• TechTarget ANZ staff

Best practices for instant messaging security

In this tip, Brien Posey details the steps you can take to protect your organisation from security problems when implementing an instant messaging system. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

IMS: Moving from legacy to convergence

This chapter download discusses migration plans to move service providers to IMS in well-planned, business-savvy phases. Continue Reading

By

• SearchVoIP ANZ Staff

VoIP sales up; Cisco admits security hole; Sipera releases top five vulnerabilities list

This week's news featured VoIP sales increasing, Cisco admitting a serious security hole, and the year's top five VoIP security holes. Continue Reading

By

• Michael Morisy, TechTarget

How to be future-ready for IP telephony

IP telephony confidence comes from being future-ready and having a scalable network that can adapt to new market trends. Continue Reading

By

• Gurmeet S. Lamba

Building a UC strategy

To create a UC strategy, you must first understand your current business processes and incorporate your business partners into the strategy. Continue Reading

By

• Bill Trussell

Voice over wireless LAN deployment requires constant maintenance

Learn how to monitor, troubleshoot and maintain your voice over wireless LAN (VoWLAN) deployment. Continue Reading

By

• David B. Jacobs

Confused about unified communications?

Can you define unified communications, or are you still trying to find a common vendor definition? Gary Audin sheds some light on the vendor meaning of UC. Continue Reading

By

• Gary Audin, Delphi Inc.

Enterprise collaboration tools from consumer market

Consumer-based collaboration tools are finding their way into the enterprise. IT departments can fight the trend, give up and ignore it, or embrace it. Continue Reading

By

• Zeus Kerravala, ZK Research

Voice quality and MOS

Defining the nine elements of voice quality and Mean Opinion Score (MOS), the standard numeric value used to measure and report on voice quality. Continue Reading

By

• Gary Audin, Delphi Inc.

Defining unified communications

Read how industry pundits are defining unified communications. Continue Reading

By

• Leigha Cardwell, TechTarget

IPTV Crash Course: Chapter 3: The Technology of IP Networks

IPTV service utilises basic IP network technology to broadcast television using the internet. Continue Reading

By

• Joseph Weber

Managed VoIP keeps regatta's communications afloat

The world's largest rowing regatta utilises managed VoIP to ease its year-round communications needs -- and for a temporary system during its celebrated two-day event. Continue Reading

By

• Kate Dostart, Associate Editor

Microsoft's OCS is finally here, for better or for worse

Zeus Kerravala reports on the long-awaited Microsoft OCS launch. Find out the pros and cons of OCS. Continue Reading

By

• Zeus Kerravala, ZK Research

Non-unified communications can cost millions

Fragmented communications are costing companies millions of dollars by disrupting workflow and business processes, a new study has revealed. Continue Reading

By

• Andrew R. Hickey

Unified communications platform gets SMB twist

While unified communications has eluded the SMB market, Siemens has released an all-in-one UC appliance specifically for the SMB. Continue Reading

By

• Andrew R. Hickey, News Editor

Asterisk creator: Consider open source VoIP, think twice about hybrid-hosted

Asterisk creator Mark Spencer clarifies his position on hybrid-hosted VoIP, and discusses open source VoIP and what it means for business users. Continue Reading

By

• Amy Kucharik, TechTarget

Bringing QoS to end-user standards

The phone call setup experience and perception of voice quality are the biggest factors contributing to the user's satisfaction. However, while the dialing experience can be objectively measured, the caller's judgment of voice quality is subjective. Find out which four factors end users expect and how to meet those specifications. Continue Reading

By

• Gary Audin, Delphi Inc.

VoIP certification credentials

Many certifications touch on voice over IP topics tangentially, but numerous credentials now focus a fairly substantial portion of their coverage on this subject matter. In this certification survey, we take a look at available certifications, distinguishing between those credentials for which VoIP is a primary topic and those for which it is secondary. Continue Reading

By

• Ed Tittel

VoIP certification credentials

Looking for VoIP skills? Want to know how to hire a VoIP specialist? This list of VoIP certifications and the skills they impart should be useful reading! Continue Reading

By

• Ed Tittel

Unified communications new priority for HP

Unified communications is a confusing area with a number of vendors in the mix. HP has launched new services to help ease companies into unified communications and help them determine which integrated tools will best fit their business goals. Continue Reading

By

• Andrew R. Hickey, News Editor

Securing VoIP Networks Chapter 7: Key Management Mechanisms

Key management is a fundamental part of protecting Internet multimedia applications like VoIP, but the protocols can be difficult to design. Continue Reading

By

• Peter Thermos and Ari Takanen

Unified communications new priority for HP

HP has launched unified communications (UC) services to help companies find and design a UC deployment that is right for their business. Continue Reading

By

• Andrew R. Hickey

IP telephony adoption rising, quality sagging

IP telephony adoption continues to grow, but service quality is lagging behind, according to a user survey from Psytechnics. Continue Reading

By

• Andrew R. Hickey, News Editor

IP PBX eases VoIP transition for gas company

An IP PBX with Sip helped one gas company upgrade to a new phone system while also jumping into VoIP. Continue Reading

By

• Andrew R. Hickey, News Editor

How to select the right IP PBX

Selecting the right IP PBX system for your company can be complicated. Here are some important things to consider when purchasing an IP PBX. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

How to select the right IP PBX

Selecting the right IP PBX system for your company can be complicated. Here are some important things to consider when purchasing an IP PBX. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

Australians more tech-aware

Telecommunications and the internet are becoming increasingly embedded in the lives of Australians, says an ACMA survey. Continue Reading

By

• Voice&Data Staff

Unified communications an 'uphill battle' for Microsoft

Unified communications is going to be a tough sell for Microsoft, which is looking to eliminate the PBX and go all software. Continue Reading

By

• Andrew R. Hickey

End-to-end network management enables reliable VoIP, unified communications

Monitoring voice quality, service availability, and security conditions are discussed in this Q & A with Gurmeet Lamba of Clarus Systems. Continue Reading

By

• Amy Kucharik, TechTarget

Communications-as-a-service taking hold

Communications-as-a-service is taking hold worldwide as a viable hosted IP telephony system. Continue Reading

By

• Andrew R. Hickey, News Editor

VoIP, unified communications prompt new technologies, threats

Wireless voice servers and handsets, VoIP and unified communications threats, and licensing agreements constitute recent changes in the VoIP market. Continue Reading

By

• Kate Dostart, Associate Editor

Understanding VoWLAN

Like VoIP, VoWLAN contributes to cost efficiency. Because calls can be routed over the data network internally or over the Internet externally, mobile telephony costs can be eliminated or decreased significantly. In the long term, VoWLAN deployment is a significant step toward interoperability and seamless mobile connectivity between private WLANs and public wireless and cellular networks. Continue Reading

Cisco issues CallManager security update

Security flaws in Cisco CallManager and Unified Communications Manager could be exploited for cross-site scripting and SQL injection attacks, but a security update is available. Continue Reading

By

• Bill Brenner

VoIP, unified communications study reveals challenges

VoIP and unified communications deployments can affect other applications. A study by Network General highlighted some challenges introduced by convergence. Continue Reading

By

• Andrew R. Hickey

VoIP, unified communications study reveals challenges

VoIP and unified communications deployments can affect other applications. A recent study by Network General highlighted some of the challenges introduced by convergence. Continue Reading

By

• Susan Fogarty, Senior Director

Australian telecoms growth predicted to fall

Research consultancy BuddeComm has predicted the Australian telecoms market will grow just 2.8% in the 2008 financial year to $36.3 billion, driven predominantly by data and broadband services. This is down from the 3.1% estimated this financial year. Continue Reading

By

• Voice&Data Staff

VoIP performance management abounds at VoiceCon

VoIP performance management tools were announced at VoiceCon, signaling a shift in focus from infrastructure to end-user experience. Continue Reading

By

• Andrew R. Hickey, News Editor

VoIP performance management abounds at VoiceCon

VoIP performance management tools announced at VoiceCon show that vendors are focusing on user experience over infrastructure. Continue Reading

By

• Andrew R. Hickey

Hosted VoIP: Take the headache and heartache out of VoIP, Part 2

Part 2 of this series investigates the QoS and security issues of the hosted VoIP model. Continue Reading

By

• SearchVoIP ANZ Staff

Hosted and managed VoIP fundamentals

Adoption rates of hosted VoIP and managed VoIP are increasing as more companies look to reduce the costs and complexities of deploying VoIP in house. Enterprises are factoring revenue growth, enhanced productivity and communication services into ROI calculations to make a business case for hosted or managed VoIP. This guide explains the differences between hosted and managed VoIP solutions and will help you decide if outsourcing VoIP is right for your organization. Continue Reading

Hosted VoIP: Take the headache and heartache out of VoIP, Part 1

No matter what size network an enterprise is running these days, large and small alike are faced with increasing technical and financial challenges. Continue Reading

By

• SearchVoIP ANZ Staff

Voice over IPv6: Architectures for Next Generation VoIP Networks

VoIP technolgies are not immune to system failures, from hacking to jitter, and these issues can present problems for companies who depend on their network. This chapter examines some of the issues that are faced by VoIP systems, focusing on those that can be addressed by IPv6, namely scalability and end-to-end robustness. Continue Reading

By

• Daniel Minoli

VoIP models and services: Complete guide

With clear, concise explanations of existing VoIP business models and deployment methodologies, this guide will enable you to weigh the pros and cons of each based on your needs. Continue Reading

By

• SearchVoIP ANZ

Asterisk PBX solves enterprise's growing communication problem

An Asterisk-based PBX proved to be the solution to one enterprise's communications growing pains. Continue Reading

By

• Kate Dostart, Associate Editor

QoS -- What voice managers need to know

Quality of Service (QoS) technologies can be quite confusing between technical complexities and marketing jargon. In this tip, find out what voice managers need to know about QoS as it relates to VoIP. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Lancaster

VoIP models and services: Complete guide

With clear, concise explanations of existing VoIP business models and deployment methodologies, this guide will enable you to weigh the pros and cons of each based on your needs. Continue Reading

Implementing video on demand

Video on demand (VoD), in at least some of its potential service models, is perhaps the most challenging of all network applications. Implementation of VoD should be should be undertaken in three particular steps. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Nolle, Andover Intel

VoIP vulnerability threatens data

VoIP vulnerabilities have now reached a level of sophistication that allows hackers to steal, view or delete data. Continue Reading

By

• Andrew R. Hickey, News Editor

NAS appliance specifications

NAS appliances are noted for their convenience, offering dedicated internal storage that is relatively straightforward to identify and manage. The biggest issue for NAS appliances is avoiding network bottlenecks and supporting expansion without having to proliferate additional appliances across the network. The product snapshots in this chapter highlight key specifications for a cross section of major NAS appliance products. Continue Reading