Sick of not making money on VoIP hardware?

February 12, 2009 by Garrett Smith

I bet you are.

Remember the good ‘ole days? When you actually made fat margins on the VoIP hardware products you sold.

It was great. You made 25, 30, even 35 points of margin (and that’s on top of any services you performed).

Unfortunately those days are long gone. Over the last few years vendors and distributors in the VoIP industry have commoditized hardware and driven margins to the brink of extinction.

Leaving many channel partners frustrated and scrambling to make ends meet. It’s not pretty, but you know it’s the truth.

Imagine how nice it would be if there was a VoIP hardware channel program out there that provided up to 50% margins, street price protection, marketing funds, rebates and a team of individuals dedicated to your success as a channel partner.

You’d jump at the opportunity to be a part of that right?

What if I told you that there IS a channel program that offers all of this and more. You’re not imagining this. This channel program really does exist.

The program? It’s from VoIP Supply. Together with QuickPhones we have put together a channel program for the hottest new wireless VoIP product on the market – the QuickPhones QA-342.

But this program is not for every channel partner. If it was it’d be just like every other program.

Today we are looking for 50 47 (three new partners joined today) who want to invest in a product line with a channel program built from the ground up by those who know what it is like to be in YOUR shoes. In exchange for your investment you’ll receive:

Discounts of up to 50% off list
Street price protection to keep your margins fat
Sales and technical support to ensure your success
Market development funds to grow your business
Volume rebates to reward your accomplishments
SPIFFs for your organization to incentivize your efforts
Logistical services including blind drop shipments to save on your carrying costs
and a team of experts at VoIP Supply helping you along the way!

On top of all this you will be able to tap into the secrets of the VoIP Supply sales and marketing machine that has driven millions in sales since 2002.

New IP Phones From Aastra: 6370i & 6731i

January 27, 2009 by Garrett Smith

The site has been a bit lean on content as of late, but we are getting back into the swing, and with the ITExpo in Miami, FL approaching in the first week of February, we expect a bunch of new VoIP product releases and you will be able to hear about it here on the VoIP Insider. Aastra has released two new IP Phones models that are packed with features at a very compelling price point. With the build quality and attention to detail you’ve come to expect from Aastra, I expect that these new phones will not disappoint.

First the Aastra 6730i, which features up to 6 line appearances. The 6730i also sports a full duplex speakerphone, multi-proxy support, XML microbrowser and intercom/paging with auto answer support. Single ethernet port onboard.

The Aastra 6731i has basically the same feature set as the 6730i, but adds a second switched ethernet port and Power Over Ethernet (PoE) support. At $99 and $109, respectively, these phones represent a tremendous value for folks wanting SIP endpoints to use in conjunction with Asterisk and other SIP based platforms.

FreePBX.org Site Gets Extreme Makeover

December 30, 2008 by Garrett Smith

FreePBX, the popular open source GUI for Asterisk, solidified a long term partnership with Bandwidth.com back in November….with Bandwidth.com acquiring, amongst other things, the FreePBX trademark.

According to the site, FreePBX has been downloaded over 3 million times, and claims 250K+ active phone systems running FreePBX as the UI, and impressive number.

Open source projects like FreePBX are typically cultivated by engineering types, and often suffer when it comes to branding, sales and marketing. Bandwidth.com has some talented folks in their creative department, and it looks as though they are lending some of their expertise in this area to FreePBX.

The new site (seen below) is consistent with the approach Bandwidth.com has taken with their corporate site as well as PhoneBooth, their hosted IP centrex service offering.

I am sure we will continue to see this partnership unfold in interesting fashion as me move into 2009. One would assume Bandwidth.com will look to leverage FreePBX to acquire new customers for their core SIP trunking, BoxSet converged voice&data offering as well as PhoneBooth.

First Look: Cisco SPA525G Desktop IP Phone with WiFi, BlueTooth and More!

December 25, 2008 by Garrett Smith

Cisco has released a new, 5-line IP phone, the SPA525G….and VoIPSupply has it first! This product breaks new ground in a number of areas which we will discuss in further detail here on the The VoIP Insider.

The Cisco SPA525G is quite similar in appearance to the popular Linksys SPA-9XX series, SIP desktop IP Phones. With the integration of the Linksys Small Business product line into Cisco’s own SMB product division, the SPA525G differs from Linksys IP phone products of the past in a number of areas.

First off, the SPA525G supports both SIP and Cisco’s proprietary SPCP protocol, used in the popular UC500. The phone makes use of CDP (Cisco Discovery Protocol) to determine if it is on a UC500 network or a SIP network. We have had an SPA525G in our lab for a few days, and have done some testing on the Linksys SPA9000, Trixbox and Digium’s Switchvox, all SIP based IP PBXs. The SPA525G seems equally at home on a SIP or Cisco proprietary platform. The SPA525G will support the Cisco UC500 feature set as well. Note: The SPA525G does not support the full Callmanager UC / Callmanager Express feature set, but is only intended for use with the Cisco UC500 or a SIP platform.

The next surprising feature of the Cisco SPA525G is how it connects to the network. The phone has dual onboard ethernet ports with support for 802.3af Power Over Ethernet. In addition, the SPA525G has a built-in 802.11G WiFi client supporting multiple AP profiles, WiFi Protected Setup, WEP and WPA authentication/encryption. Wired or Wireless ethernet connectivity make the SPA525G a lot more versatile, and this feature is sure to be popular with users. In our testing the SPA525G quickly scanned for available WiFi networks, and was a snap to configure.

The Cisco SPA525G is also the only IP phone we are aware of that offers native support for BlueTooth. We easily paired the phone with BlueTooth headset products from Plantronics and Jabra without a hitch. If BlueTooth is not your thing, the phone also offers a built-in 2.5mm headset jack.

You will also notice a built in USB 2.0 port on top of the Cisco SPA525G phone. Today you can plug in any USB storage media and play MP3’s right on the phone with the built-in MP3 player….easily accessible via the soft-menu on the phone. You can also utilize the super bright color LCD display on the phone to display photos, similar to the LCD digital picture frames that have become popular these days.

Cisco has also included several built-in XML web applications, that allow you to pull local weather and news feeds and view that content right on the phone display.

The Cisco SPA525G also offers both a Personal Address Book and support for LDAP / XML Corporate Directory.

First Look: Linksys WIP310-G1 802.11G WiFi IP Phone

December 18, 2008 by Garrett Smith

Linksys cum Cisco has been threatening to release the WIP310-G1 since Spring of 2008, and it looks as though the wait may be coming to an end.

The VoIP Insider has managed to score an early test unit, and the product should be available through Cisco distribution very shortly. Expect retail prices on the unit to be around $249.

The WIP310-G1 support WiFi 802.11b/g and the latest SIP protocols. The handset features a large, bright, full-color high resolution display and quick network connectivity via WiFi Protected Setup (WPS). WPS is a fast, secure way of connecting the WIP310 to your wireless AP. Just press the WPS button and your connection will automatically be configured and secured with a custom SSID using powerful WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) encryption. Within seconds you have successfully set up a secure connection. Easy Peasy.

VoIP service from pretty much any SIP based provider that allows BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) can be quickly provisioned via a WiFi connection and the configuration profile is received securely right to the handset using TFTP, HTTP, or HTTPS.

The included telephone base accentuates the appealing, modern design of the handset and provides hands-free convenience when using the built-in speakerphone. The WIP310 supports many features such as caller ID, call forwarding, call transfer, 3-way conferencing and can store 200 records in its phonebook. We have tested the WIP310 with a variety of SIP IP PBX platforms, including Trixbox and Switchvox, with great results.

Folks who are accustomed to working with the popular Linksys SPA-9XXX desktop IP Phones should immediately be familiar with the web based UI of the WIP310-G1. A screenshot of the GUI is below.

Asterisk’s Popularity Continues to Grow

December 17, 2008 by Garrett Smith

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, you know all about Asterisk’s meteoric rise to national acclaim. The open source telephony platform, originally constructed by Mark Spencer to avoid paying an ungodly sum of money for a telephone system, just recently turned nine years old – and shows no signs of slowing down.

According to a release published this morning, Asterisk has been downloaded over 1.5 million times in 2008 – the highest one year total ever. Oh – and that number is more than 50 percent of last years number.

Perhaps what is most intriguing about this announcement is not the fact that Asterisk has been downloaded 1.5 million times in 2008 – but the fact that the number could be substantially larger in 2009. Why?

You might not have noticed, but the economy sucks. People love free and when you have little money – a DIY Asterisk deployment starts looking a little more realistic.
Asterisk truly is a more then a phone system. Thanks to it’s flexibility, folks are now embracing the platform as a way to create voicemail systems, conference bridges and gateways among other things.
The community continues to grow. The community is as active and involved today, as it was in 2003 when I first start working with it.
Digium is doing the right things. It is not easy balancing the needs of a for-profit business with that of a open source project, but to date Digium continues to work diligently to ensure that when one side wins, so to does the other.

Now open source isn’t for everyone. However it is continuing to gain acceptance with customers at all levels – and I bet you’d have a hard time naming too many others in this space who can lay claim to the fact that their software got into the hands of over 1.5 million people in 2008.

How’s that for proof that open source is a viable solution?

Aastra 57i Named Best IP Phone for Asterisk?

December 15, 2008 by Garrett Smith

No, this isn’t an official award that I picked up on from some press release. This award comes from an actual user – none other then Nerd Vittles Asterisk Jedi, Ward Mundy.

If you are not familiar with Ward and his site Nerd Vittles, then you should definitely check it out, especially if you are working with or in the open source space.

Is the Aastra 6757i really the best IP Phone for Asterisk? It is tough to say for certain (hey, I haven’t used every IP Phone with Asterisk), but having used the Aastra 57i, I can say that it is near the top of the heap when it comes to ease of configuration and use with Asterisk (or an Asterisk based VoIP phone system).

Interested in learning more? Read more about what Ward has to say about the 57i here.

See, I Told You, It’s the WAN

by Garrett Smith

I know that I have spoken numerous times here about the pivotal role Wide Area Network (WAN) connectivity quality plays in the overall success of a VoIP deployment. Regardless of the size and scope of a VoIP deployment, if there isn’t adequate bandwidth, your experience is going to be less then favorable.

This morning while sifting through some industry news, Andy Abramson pointed me to a study out of the UK that points to poor call quality as a reason that more than half the respondents (54%) have yet to even touch VoIP. While this is a small data set, it is further proof that one of the major keys to a successful VoIP deployment is the quality and availability of bandwidth.

Besides doing a thorough VoIP network assessment, which would include analyzing both your WAN connection and your internal LAN, many companies (including VoIP service providers) are looking to network monitoring devices, such as Edgewater Network’s Edgemarc devices and U4EA Multi-service gateways, in order to ensure proper bandwidth availability. There is even a company, who’s product we are currently evaluating, that provides a small office/home office networking monitoring solution that retails below $100.

So, while bandwidth remains the leading cause of poor VoIP experiences, rest assured that the industry as a whole is continuing it’s efforts to educate the public on the importance of bandwidth quality/availability when deploying VoIP and that vendors are working tirelessly to provide solutions focused on erradicating the issues involved with deploying VoIP.

Until that happens, do yourself a favor – check your network (both) before you go deploying VoIP.

Win a Free WiFi Phone from VoIPSupply

December 8, 2008 by Garrett Smith

CONGRATULATIONS TO COMMENTER “NICK” ON BEING DRAWN AS THE WINNER OF OUR QUICKPHONES QA-342 GIVEAWAY. THANKS EVERYONE FOR YOUR COMMENTS. PLEASE LOOK FOR MORE CONTESTS, PROMOTIONS AND GIVEAWAYS ON THE VOIP INSIDER IN THE NEAR FUTURE!

SIP based wireless handsets that connect to the network via 802.11g WiFi have been a popular product segment for VoIPSupply over the past several years. Vendors including UTStarCom, Hitachi and Linksys have introduced WiFi VoIP products into the marketplace that have been met with a mixed reception.

Business and residental VoIP users have expressed a desire for SIP endpoints that offer basic mobility, yet many of the vendor offerings released to meet this demand have suffered from performance and usability issues.

VoIPSupply is very excited to announce that we will begin shipping a new WiFi VoIP handset from QuickPhones that has tested well in our labs and customer trials, and that we feel addresses some of the performance issues that have marred WiFi SIP phones in the past.

First and foremost the QuickPhones QA-342 offers superior battery life due to a unique power-saving feature. The QA-342 has a bright, backlit LCD display and rubbery, tactile keypad that makes dialing and navigating the interface a snap. We have tested this product with Asterisk, Trixbox, Switchvox and other SIP based IP PBXs and it plays well with any platform we have thrown at it thusfar.

Have you experimented with wireless VoIP in your home or business? Do you have an existing VoIP solution that could be enhanced by wireless SIP handsets?

Let us know how you have used, or would use, this technology to improve your personal or business IP communications. Comments are welcomed, and on Friday, December 12th we will be picking a contributor at random who will receive a Free QuickPhones QA-342 Wireless IP Phone.

Sangoma B600 Line Launched

by Garrett Smith

Last week leading telephony card manufacturer Sangoma launched their newest series of cards, the B600 series.

The Sangoma B600 series was designed from the ground-up for the VoIP Phone system builder and integrator who is looking for a high-quality non-modular PSTN connectivity card. The Sangoma B600 voice cards deliver customers a substantial cost savings, coupled with the “because it must work” quality and the Wanpipe high-end system diagnostics, drivers, and utilities for which Sangoma is known worldwide.

The Sangoma B600 series comes in a single 4 FXO/ 1 FXS configuration (one of the most common configuration for smaller VoIP phones systems), but there are four different versions. They include:

Sangoma B600 – Base model
Sangoma B600E – With PCI Express architecture
Sangoma B600D – With Echo Cancellation
Sangoma B600DE – With PCI Express architecture and Echo Cancellation

For those who don’t need the modularity that comes with Sangoma’s A200 and A400 series card’s the Sangoma B600 series offers a considerable cost savings, without sacrificing the quality you have come to expect from Sangoma.

Sick of not making money on VoIP hardware?

New IP Phones From Aastra: 6370i & 6731i

FreePBX.org Site Gets Extreme Makeover

First Look: Cisco SPA525G Desktop IP Phone with WiFi, BlueTooth and More!

First Look: Linksys WIP310-G1 802.11G WiFi IP Phone

Asterisk’s Popularity Continues to Grow

Aastra 57i Named Best IP Phone for Asterisk?

See, I Told You, It’s the WAN

Win a Free WiFi Phone from VoIPSupply

Sangoma B600 Line Launched

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