Business Telephone Systems Moving the Communication World Forward

That Business Telephone Systems have major roles to play in the
revolution of the telecommunication system is not overemphasized. This
fact is more demonstrated by how companies clamor for its application
realizing the need to incorporate this cutting edge technology to help
them optimize cost the best way possible. It is no longer news that
communication is one of the major backbones for businesses to scout
for new customers and in the same manner retains existing ones.
Companies nowadays are no longer satisfied with having telephone
lines; they have developed big appetites for communication to the
extent that mere reference to telephones alone is insufficient at this
point in the game, as all kinds of telecommunications pathways need to
be integrated in order to maximize efficiency at the business place.
And talk of efficiency; all factors that would enable them achieve
maximum satisfaction by expending fewer resources have to be
considered. Most importantly is having a Least Cost Routing service in
place. In voice telecommunications, least cost routing (LCR) is the
process of selecting the path of outbound communications traffic based
on cost. Within a telecoms carrier, an LCR team might periodically
(monthly, weekly or even daily) choose between routes from several or
even hundreds of carriers for destinations across the world.
The LCR works in such a way that various telecoms carriers the route
with the lowest fares that can carry the call needing to be made.
This process allows telecoms carriers trade destinations with each
other, and there is usually more than one option for any call being
made. An LCR team will create a table with all the pertinent
information of carriers, routes, rates, and call quality and route
quality statistics and will calculate, using advanced algorithms,
which finally configuration is in the best interests of the business
at hand. Of course, a business can establish certain minimal call and
route quality standards and impose them on the LCR service planning
process. These are measured using certain criteria, such as the
average duration of a call, the amount of calls answered out of the
total amount of calls made, and the delay between the last digit in a
phone number dialed and the time the caller actually begins to hear a
ring. The first of these criteria relates to call quality, generally,
and the second and third criteria refer to the route quality. Managing
a tight ship in all these regards is a central component in any state
of the art Business Telephone System.
Computer Telephony Integration, also known as CTI is another crucial
factor to be considered. This has to do with the ability with which a
business has to coordinate computer and telephone usage. Since modern
telephone equipment is really nothing more than a specialized
computer, it is logical that telephone systems should be subordinated
to a business’s computer network. Though there are different degrees
of integration possible (first-party call control and third-party call
control), the basic idea is the following: an operator can make their
phone operations more streamlined and can access and save more
information, more quickly. For example, a phone operator can make
their dialing more expedient by utilizing automatic dialing or
predictive dialing features of CTI, the latter of which is simply a
more sophisticated version of the former, offering an operator a
valuable tool in continuing their operations without glitches and as
quickly as possible.
As we can see, Business Telephone Systems offers companies with
cutting-edge solutions to enable them meet their many and diverse
communication needs. These modern systems are, in the best of cases,
strategically designed to contemplate future advances in telephone and
other telecommunications technologies, to cut communications costs,
and to provide a higher quality service. No business profits or grows
when calls are being dropped, when conversations are of poor quality
and the people at either end of the line can barely understand or hear
each other, and when calls aren’t even getting through.

This is a shocking news for VoIP users who call India, they would no
longer be able to call India using internet telephony service if the
request of Intelligence Bureau is granted. Citing security concerns
related to the inability to track the origin of calls made via
Internet telephony (Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP), India’s
Intelligence Bureau has asked the Department of Telecom (DoT) to block
VoIP services to and from the country claiming that they are acting in
the interest of national security.
Although, this request is still waiting approval from the government
but if finally approved callers in India should be ready to pay very
high calling rates as high as 7-10 cents per minute since VoIP calls
have offer very cheap rates to most destinations accross the globe and
even within the country.
Now it is not clear whether this request will apply to all Internet
Telephony, or specifically to calls that terminate on a landline or a
handset. As far as we know, even though the Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended unrestricted Internet
Telephony in India, these haven’t yet been made operational by the
DoT. Thus, terminating VoIP calls on PSTN networks (landline, mobiles)
still isn’t permitted in India. It’s unlikely that the DoT will be
able to enforce identification of where VoIP calls are originating
from anyway.
Anyway, is it possible for ISPs to block VoIP altogether? Because even
though one may not be able to terminate calls on a handset, users will
probably be able to use applications like Fring, Nimbuzz or even Skype
Mobile via 3G or WiFi.
May be the enforcing agent should have a re-think before implementing
this. They should consider the fact that VoIP is not the only way of
communication for anti-Indian groups. They can very well use Satellite
Phones or scrambled phone lines. Also, the ban implies that there
would definitely be more illegal VOIP usage which in turn means loss
of revenue for the government because people would sought for a way
out to beat the system.
We would like to know your opinions concerning this issue by dropping a comment.

Twitter users are being given the tools to take their addiction to the
next level, they will be able to make voice calls to each other using the
popular microblogging service. This was made known by Jajah, an IP
Telephony company which announced that it has released the beta
version of Jajah@call, “the twitter calling solution”.
The process is quite simple, registered users only need to type in
@call then @username to place a call to a fellow tweeter. For
instance, you would tweet @call @solokay if you wanted to give me
a shout on twitter. If the user is following you, you can chat with
them for two minutes free of charge. There is a catch however, both
users must be Jajah users to get in on the fun.
Jajah also claimed that it would be possible for users to place calls
via mobile phones, computers, or even old school landlines without use
of downloads or headsets. It’s also twitter-client friendly and it
will work on any device on which twitter can be accessed, from your
smart-phones to PC.
To make a twitter call, go to www.jajah.com and signup, under “My
Services” in “My Account” page you will see “Twitter Calls.” If this
doesn’t appear, and you would like an invitation, send an email to
twitter@jajah.com
Let other people know they can @call you: send a tweet “call me free
reply with @call”. Or add “JAJAH@Call” to your account info so people
will know you are part of the beta. To protect privacy, calls can only
be made to people who follow you. Jajah says you’ll even be able to
make calls when using Twitter clients like Tweetie and TwitterBerry on
your smartphone.
Unfortunately, the service is only open to U.S. numbers while it’s in
beta, so international users will have to wait to reach out and touch
someone via tweeting.

There are handful of applications that make the iPhone quite useful a
device and these ranging from entertainment, social networking and
even to include business. GPS capability is one of the key features
many users look out for before deciding which iPhone to buy. Apple’s
iPhone is one of the few available in the market that boast of having
great features including GPS capability without compromising on
functionality. Apart from Apple’s iPhone, there are few other
companies that offer similar device with more or less the same
functions.
TomTom’s turn-by-turn direction iPhone application is one of the
applications that have been met with much enthusiasm. The new
application delivers TomTom’s turn-by-turn directions straight to the
iPhone. It features everything you’d expect from TomTom including
voice- and map-guided directions and your best route options based on
the time of day. TomTom also announced a special car kit for the
iPhone that works as a charging dock, enhances the iPhone’s GPS signal
and allows for hands-free calling. Customer choice may suffer a little
in terms of devices, but the options for functionality within the
device look set to expand. By all accounts it’s a promising future for
multifunction devices, but with every new iPhone and Palm Pre that
comes along, it becomes clearer that the days of the one-function
gadget are coming to a close.
Another great application is the navigon-mobile-navigator-iphone.
Navigation on the Navigon app is really slick. The interface has a
fast refresh rate and the voice is just about as understandable as it
could be given the iPhone’s weak speaker. Note it won’t be nearly as
loud nor as clear as a PND, however it is much better than the AT&T
Navigator app when it comes to voice quality. You do not get text to
speech which is a bummer, however at least the voice is reasonably
easy to understand.
MobileNavigator has a striking on-screen display, with many features
lacking in some of the other products that are out there.
MobileNavigator allows you to access your address book for
destinations. It works in landscape or portrait mode, and can warn you
if you are speeding. It does not have any traffic info, and you can’t
call any phone numbers that are in the POI (points of interest) data
base.
There are a host of other applications that equally offer great
features, all you need to do is identify your needs and of course
check you pocket before deciding on buying. If you shop well, you are
sure going to get a suitable application for your iPhone that suits
your requirements.

FaxBack, the Portland, Oregon-based company unveiled its VoIP Fax ATA,
based on HTTPS, and announced the device’s beta program for carriers
at ITEXPO West, in Los Angeles. This new technology enables fax
machines and fax servers to achieve the same cost savings as voice
calls, while maintaining the same reliability over internet-based
VoIP, WiFi, cellular, or satellite connections, according to FaxBack.
The company’s new platform also enables fax machines, desktop fax
applications and fax servers to stream fax data over the internet with
TDM level reliability, while running on relatively low quality
networks.
In addition to being “far more reliable than traditional fax
machines,” as well as supporting previously unsupported features like
fax archiving and e-mail notifications, FaxBack’s new HTTPS-based fax
ATA is more secure, and equipped with easy firewall/NAT traversal
capabilities.
According to FaxBack, SIP T.38 over the Internet is not secure, it
uses a lot of bandwidth, and latency can cause packet loss, which
makes faxes fail. The company put all the timinig-critical aspects of
a fax into this ATA, which increases reliability and they push the
data stream over the Internet using a more friendly protocol. And the
ATA has enough memory to handle up to 30 seconds of buffer.
FaxBack’s HTTPS-based approach reliably connects fax machines over IP
networks, including wireless networks or satellite connections, in a
manner that equals direct PSTN connections. The beta program
officially began on Monday, September 15.
Furthermore, FaxBack announced an alliance with Epygi, an IP PBX
telephone systems provider for small to medium-size businesses (SMBs),
to incorporate FaxBack’s Microsoft Fax Plug-in into the Epygi Quadro
family of business communication systems. Epygi’s Quadro IP PBXes,
Quadro Gateways and Quadro Conference Servers are specifically
designed to provide the IP-based communications capabilities that SMBs
and small offices/home offices (SOHO) look for at affordable rates.
Expressing his satisfaction over the response they’re seeing across
the SMB marketplace about the Microsoft Fax VOIP Plug-in, Quentin
Dible, vice president of operations for FaxBack said “It turns one of
the last hurdles for adopting a new VOIP phone system—reliable VOIP
fax—into a simple convenience that improves productivity and saves
money,” he said. “Epygi is one of the clear leaders in the SMB VOIP
space, and we’re thrilled to work with them to share our VOIP-fax
capabilities with their user base.”
The new HTTPS-based fax solution addresses the challenge of connecting
fax machines via SIP T.38-based ATAs. This new FaxBack machine
reliably connects fax machines, Microsoft fax clients, and
premise-based fax servers like FaxBack’s NET SatisFAXtion, the company
stated.

India has always been one of the cheapest destinations when it comes
to VoIP calls and recently access based number which was popular in
the country sometime back is now on the verge of breaking down due to
legal issues. Some companies are already out of business over this
issue and these include popular name like the allfreecalls.net and
yak4ever.
Despite the legal issues being directed towards companies offering
access based number, some companies are ready to take what they
believe is calculated risk including Freecallindia.com. Freecall2india
is accessible from USA, UK and Brazil. The service offers you the
chance to call their access numbers; also you will have to pay for the
cost of calling the access number only when you call these access
numbers. The international call leg is free though its always better
to check local calling rates to these numbers.
In order to enjoy this service, you need to get connected to
freecall2india access number gateway first and then dial your
preferred number in this format: Country Code (USA) + Area Code
(Miami) + Phone Number #. For calling India, you would dial
9122268333456#.
The company offers this service to many other destinations and these
include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Canada Mobile, Chile,
China, China – Mobile, Colombia , Croatia, France, Germany, Hong Kong,
Hong Kong – Mobile, India, India – Mobile, Indonesia , Italy, Japan,
Jordan, Malaysia, Mexico , Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania,
Russia, Singapore, Singapore – Mobile, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,
Thailand, Thailand – Mobile, United Kingdom, United States , United
States Mobile, Venezuela.

Betamax has launched a new service with the hope of “blasting” the
VoIP market with cheap and free VoIP calling around the world. Betamax
has not had many new additions to their service lately so it is great
to see another new service that looks very promising.
VoipBlast, as this new service is called, offers “cheap or free VoIP
calls” to more than 40 countries around the world. The calling rates
to these destinations are equally great, for example calling India is
only $0.0098, which is 0.98 cents per minute. This rate is an
extremely great price and the best price available in the market for
now.
However, there is a clause unlike other Betamax services this service
has a connection fee for each pc2phone call, which is 3.9 cents/call.
the same charge is applied for the phone2phone calls, which makes is
less than other services where you were paying 5 cents as connection
fee. This might make this offer not as good, but if you speak for a
long time at once then this provider’s rates are perfect.
Another point to note is that this free international offer is
subjected to Fair usage policy(FUP) which states that registered users
get max 300 minutes per week of free calls, measured over the last 7
days and per unique IP address.
This service can be user from a personal softphone, and the sip settings are:
SIP port : 5060
Registrar : sip.voipblast.com
Proxy server: sip.voipblast.com
Outbound proxy server : leave empty
Account name : your VoipBlast username
Password : your VoipBlast password
Display name/number : your VoipBlast username or voipnumber
Stunserver (option) : stun.voipblast.com

Voip Blast is good to use Phone to Phone calling facility because for
phone2phone service other providers are charging around 5 cents/call
as connection fee. Apart from this connection fee rates are lowest as
of today. Another best part is that you can try this service in by
recharging for only 1EURO through any VoIP reseller.
They also provide a VoIP Incoming number like Localphone at 1 EURO. It
is not as good as Localphone’s incoming VoIP number but it is worth a
try.

If you have ever used VoIP services to call Malaysia, you would notice
that it is only calls to landlines that are actually cheap and
especially when you route your calls through any of Betamax services.
None of the service providers offering free and cheap calls has ever
tried offering free calls to mobile lines in Malaysia therefore
calling Malaysian mobiles have remained on the high side in terms of
cost for sometime now.
However, Flekx is a new VoIP provider that has come to change this by
offering totally free calls to Malaysia. With this service, you can
now call to any number in Malaysia including Malaysia PSTN or Mobile
numbers and no payment is required. The only but here is that you have
to reside in Malaysia before you can enjoy this goody.
Flekx has configured their system in such a way that it is not
possible for users outside Malaysia to make use of the service if you
try registering from them. Even if try to hide your IP and use a proxy
it would not work because there is a section in the registration form
where you would be asked to fill-in MyKad-Malaysian Identity number
only available for those residing in Malaysia.
In order to enjoy this service, you need to first register at Flekx
website and then download Flekx softphone (Pangolin by PortSIP). Once
you have downloaded the Flekx softphone, you can now login to the
Softphone using the username and password you registered with and you
are good to make free calls to any Malaysian numbers.
Flekx has configured calls for certain destinations, for Klang Valley
Numbers(Numbers starting with 03), you are requested to omit the 03,
dial the number directly, take for instance for 03-78808808, dial just
78808808. If you are calling other Malaysian Numbers(Numbers starting
with 04,05,06,07,08,09) you would have to include the area prefix,
dial the number directly, e.g. for 04-6888808, dial 047688808. Mobile
users whose numbers start with 01 can directly dial the number like
this, 012-7689090, dial 0127869090.
Flekx is giving out points to users and the more people you invite the
higher the points being awarded and these points are used to make free
calls. To accumulate Flekx callout points, just dial 111. Listen to
the audio advertisement till the end and enter the 2 digit
verification number. Once the number is entered, you will get 25 Flekx
points. Let us hear from you if you are in Malaysia and wish to try
out this service.

Voxli is one of the few conference calling applications that offer
free online conference services. It appears with the company is set to
hot up competition with fore front web conference application
providers like the Tokbox with its new service. In addition to being
simple to set up and use, Voxli is available to worldwide users.
This application is designed to allow gamers and teams to have a voice
chat over the internet without running up huge phone bills. There are
a number of advantages to using voxli; it can support huge numbers of
gamers. In fact it’s possible to talk to up to 200 people at once
without needing to do anything complicated or set up your own server.
The voice chat will be given its own unique URL which is how your
friends will access your chat; you just need to copy the link and sent
it round to them.
Voxli supports both windows and Mac platforms and you simply need to
press the right control key when you want to talk. This shortcut key
even works outside the browser which means you don’t have to keep the
browser on top of your game. At the moment Voxli is free, however it
may start charging when they launch the site.
Unlike other applications this just deals with voice chat, this is
useful because it doesn’t rely on specific games or specific hardware.
It can be used on any computer as long as you have an internet
connection, microphone and speakers. As it can handle up to 200 users
at the same time it will be able to handle most people’s requirements.
If you want to make use of this service, you need to download a Voxli
Client which enabled VOIP for you and your friends.Registering for an
account is done at the same time as creating your first team. You will
be asked a series of questions to make sure that your account is set
up properly and that your microphone and speakers are working
correctly.
Please let us hear from you if you decide to try-out this service by
dropping your comments.

PokeTalk is not a new name when it comes to free VoIP international
calls, the service has attracted several users from across the globe.
PokeTalk offers consumers the ability to make completely free phone
calls, from both landlines and mobiles. In addition, there is
absolutely no need for headsets, microphones, PC speakers, or any
other accessories or special adapters.
In order to serve you better, Poketalk has gone the extra mile to
upgrade their services and include improve features that would make
you stay connected to your loved ones at your convenience. Users of
the service can now have full customization of the system which allows
them to add or remove services to their account, including web
callback, stats, sms callback, sharing and lots more.
There is an option called SMS Callback which enables to get connected
to your contacts when you are away from home. All you need to do is
send an SMS with the number you want to call and PokeTALK would
connect you to your contact. The service allows you to add an
extension so that PokeTALK will call you directly if you are in your
office or hotel. You can even block your caller ID by simply using the
caller ID turn on/off option.
PokeTalk has made it easy for developers to add features to PokeTALK
for all users to use, or standalone services to the site by
incorporating the easy to use PokeTALK API. Now you can build
applications or services around the poketalk API. The company is
running a promo for users who would sign-up or Poketalk account before
31st august and upgrade to Poketalk PRO account by giving them a 30%
bonus.
There is another exclusive offer which allows Poketalk registered
member with a valid account to enjoy a coupon of 10% extra credit. If
have an existing account and you would want to take advantage of this
coupon, go to your Account Page after login in and locate the PRO tab.
Under PRO, you can see your PRO Balance. Click on Add Credit, you
would see 3 options, Choose Coupon tab. Once you are in the code
field, enter voipguides and click Send. This would instantly add 10%
extra talktime into your account.
Why not try out the service and let us hear from you what you think
about this “poking” service.