VoIP: Voice over Internet Protocol

Research and Markets has announced a report entitled VoIP Security to their offering.

The VoIP market in 2005 has been growing steadily as customers begin to accept the benefits of converging their voice, data and video networks in favor of a single infrastructure. Influential partners within both the vendor and end-user communities have, however, begun voicing their concerns over the security implications of switching to such a system.

Experts at ISSs X-force who regularly examine applications and protocols examined many of the key protocols used by VoIP systems and reported that most of them were wide open from a security perspective. The issue, according to ISS, is that VoIP systems were not designed with security in mind.

Greater maturity and the rise in reliability levels have persuaded companies to begin investing in VoIP to take advantage of the benefits that the technology brings. Nevertheless, availability is still a primary concern and vendors introducing themselves as providers of complete VoIP protection services should address availability issues.

A vendor looking to enter the VoIP security space should work closely with end-user focus groups, such as the Jericho Forum to understand & remedy their concerns. The benefit is that dissenting voices from end-users are quieted. This also gives the vendor an opportunity to impress potential clients with their knowledge of the VoIP security space.

Sennheiser introduces a pair of new headset models targeted toward the burgeoning sphere of VoIP (voice over internet protocol) communications.

While the VoIP boom is bringing real convenience and low/no-cost value to global telephony, VoIP voice quality, though potentially very good, is often seriously compromised by the “giveaway� headsets provided with most internet-telephony interfaces. Bridging this gap are Sennheiser’s new PC 20 and PC 30 headsets. Supremely lightweight and comfortable for the long—often very long—conversations that internet telephony encourages, the new headsets feature accurate, extended-response transducers and Sennheiser’s exceptional noise-canceling microphone design, which effectively filters out ambient noise, to maximize speech-intelligibility and overall sound quality at both ends.

The PC 20 is a single-speaker monaural headset, while the PC 30 is a dual-transducer stereo model capable of delivering high-quality sound equally suitable for use in PC gaming and multimedia use as well as telephony. Both feature the same wide-range playback transducer, and an ultralight, non-intrusive microphone boom that can be shifted to left- or right-side placement according to user preference. With comfortable, ergonomic earcushions, and fully adjustable mic-booms and headbands that promote long-term comfort for virtually any wearer, the PC 20 and PC 30 are an outstanding choice for VoIP communications.

Synonymous with Sennheiser’s PC 20 and PC 30 design is robust reliability. Headbands and earcups are fashioned of virtually indestructible polymer materials, and feature a 10 foot (3-meter), Kevlar™ reinforced interconnect cable (able to reach even rear-panel connections on floor-mounted PCs) that will remain reliable and trouble-free over years of heavy use.

The Sennheiser PC 20 and PC 30 desktop headsets will be available January 2006, at Sennheiser’s suggested retail price of $24.95 and $29.95, respectively.

For additional information about Sennheiser, visit www.sennheiserusa.com.

Verizon VoiceWing is an exciting new service that lets you make inexpensive, unlimited local and long distance phone calls over the Internet to anywhere in the U.S., including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The signal automatically travels over your high-speed Internet connection instead of traditional copper wires. And it works just like your home phone—just pick up the receiver and dial. It also includes our most popular calling features, such as Caller ID, Three-Way Calling and Call Waiting.

But what makes VoiceWing really special are its webbased features:

• Listen to and forward Voice Mail messages from any PC with access to the Internet.
• Easily maintain a log of all incoming, outgoing and missed calls.
• Keep a personal address book to store all your contact information. This feature also links to Outlook and can sync to your PDA.
• Click-to-Dial the telephone number right from your computer screen.
• Select any area code you want for your service. This allows family and friends with the same area code to call you for the price of a local call.
• Use your PC to forward calls at a specific future date and time.
• The Do Not Disturb feature lets you choose which calls get through, while all other go right to Voice Mail.
• Simultaneous Ring. It automatically rings your cell, work and home phones, all at the same time.

Skype has certified Sennheiser’s full range of communications headsets as exceeding its high standards for audio quality, and being fully capable of delivering the clarity and naturalness of Skype’s internet-based voice communications. A selection of Sennheiser communication headsets will be available for purchase from Skype’s website.

“Skype is helping to form the future of web communications, and as such is an ideal partner for Sennheiser,” says Andreas Bach, General Manager Sales and Marketing at Sennheiser Communications (Denmark), where the headset range is engineered. “We already know that our designs set the world standard,” continues Bach, “and it’s gratifying to be similarly recognized by such an important innovator in our field.”

Skype is a leading supplier of software for web communication. The free downloadable “Skype” program allows people around the world to talk to each other at no cost, via their existing broadband-internet connections, via virtually any personal computer platform including Mac OSX, Windows, Linux, and Pocket PC; Skype also offers bridging to conventional telephone systems at very low cost.

Sennheiser Communications offers a broad range of headphone/microphone headsets optimized for desktop use, from full stereo headsets to sub-mini “earsets” and wireless Bluetoothâ„¢ models. All, including the affordable and popular new PC 20 and PC 30, feature noise-canceling microphones for improved real-world intelligibility plus Sennheiser’s unique ActiveGardâ„¢ limiting technology, which protects wearers from uncomfortable (and potentially harmful) noise bursts. Of course, all also enjoy Sennheiser’s famous sound quality, for enhanced communications and unequalled versatility making them valuable for music, media, and gaming use alike.

The more mainstream acceptance of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology was perhaps the biggest telecom story of 2005, fuelled, in part, by eBay’s $2.6 billion acquisition of Skype Technologies, and according to Mr. Galliers-Pratt, the following trends and predictions are what could make headlines in 2006:

1. Competitive Practices: We could possibly see the beginnings of VoIP “walled gardens” by the Internet Access Providers, who may start to block VoIP calls from major VoIP providers and only open channels for their own services in an attempt to regain and build revenues from voice services.

2. Consolidation/Partnerships: Major Internet players such as Yahoo! and Google, will continue to develop key strategic partnerships, merge with or acquire Internet Access Providers to secure access and enhance services with their VoIP offering. Pure play VoIP providers may be squeezed from the market or most likely become acquisition targets.

3. Broadband Penetration: Broadband will continue to grow aggressively throughout the world and continue to fuel the availability of VoIP services to residential customers.

4. Wireless: Wireless will continue to grow in leaps and bounds and the pending 3G roll-out will be the catalyst for Mobile Operators to embrace VoIP services, as the most effective technology to bring mobility and increased connectivity between businesses mobile and fixed PBX extensions. VoIP will also begin to erode the “Roaming” premiums, due to the growth of WiFi and integrated networks.

5. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP): SIP will likely become the standard delivery mechanism for VoIP calls, threatening the position of traditional PBX manufacturers, as SIP enables Internet Access Providers a standard upon which to offer even more cost effective, hosted, and feature-rich services.

6. IP Transit Exchanges: The possible emergence of IP Transit Exchanges will handle and balance traffic across the internet and enable things like the interconnection of different VoIP services. It will also mean better management of the Internet so that quality of service will improve so much so that there will no longer be a need for companies to require private dedicated bandwidth making call quality and speed per dollar a better deal. Ultimately this means that the internet will be more usable and will bang another nail in the coffin of traditional telephony. This may not all happen during 2006 though and would be a trend to watch for the next 5 years.

7. Regulatory Threats: VoIP service providers will likely do an increasingly better job of working with solutions providers and national and local 911 authorities, as well as becoming compliant with the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). Other traditional voice service regulatory standards will be
increasingly applied to VoIP providers and may level the playing field a bit.

8. Video/Multimedia: VoIP, which is capable of being more than simply telephone technology, may become effectively capable of providing an even greater set of feature-rich multimedia services that provide audio, full-motion video and other multimedia communications services such as video conferencing.

Vonage now supports the National Emergency Number Association’s (NENA) new interim/migratory (i2) technical standard for VoIP E911.

The release of the i2 technical standard is NENA’s first major standard combining the new technology of Voice over the Internet and the existing Enhanced 911 (E911) system interface. The i2 technical standard enables VoIP providers to deliver full E911 service through the current E911 infrastructure. It is the first of a two part system overhaul effort
surrounding IP that was started in 2003 and the first major E911 system design effort since its creation in the 1970’s.

The VoIP industry has been working cooperatively with NENA, network owners and public safety to establish the ‘rules of the road’ for VoIP E911 services — including nomadic services like Vonage’s,” said David Jones, ENP, President of NENA. “The creation of this standard is two years in the making — a testament to the hard work and dedication we’ve all put in to get E911 to all customers throughout the U.S. as quickly as possible. The national deployment of VoIP E911 is significant challenge requiring the cooperation and collaboration among many parties. The NENA i2 standard is designed to provide a blueprint for all parties to work together on the same page. We are pleased
that Vonage is committed to a standards-based deployment of E911.”