Plantronics is currently offering a limited time $25 Mail-in-rebate promotion on select wireless headset systems from August 8th until November 15th, 2006. The following products are eligible for the promotion:
For the full line of Plantronics products available at VoIP Supply, please Click Here!
With Pulver Media’s Fall VON show less than a month away I wanted to let everyone everyone know that VoIP Supply will exhibiting at the Von Expo September 12th-14th. VON is THE industry event for businesses in the IP Communications market. The largest VoIP & Video exhibition in the world, VON brings all the players together under one roof: carriers, technology providers, industry luminaries, buyers, press, trade analysts, gurus and bloggers – providing a unique opportunity to deliver your message to all of these constituents. The conference and expo is being held at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in downtwon Boston, MA. We will be located in booth #248. Our booth will featue products from industry leading vendors Polycom, Grandstream, ClearOne, Vegastream, and many more. I encourage everyone to stop in and speak with one of our product experts and to check out the great show specials we will be running for conference attendees.
Leading Internet Retailer of Voice over IP Products and Services aims to improve customer shopping experience
BUFFALO, NY (August 14th, 2006) VoIP Supply, LLC (www.voipsupply.com), a leading Internet Retailer of Voice over IP telephony products, software and services, today announced $4.99 flat rate domestic ground shipping on all online orders and the institution of a new 30 day no-hassle return policy on all products and services. In addition to these changes, VoIP Supply made a number of changes to improve the customer buying experience and further bolster its customer service and support.
“Our customers spoke and we heard them loud and clear,” said Benjamin P. Sayers, President and CEO of VoIPSupply.com. “Our customers are our number one priority. They suggested numerous changes that we could implement in order to improve their experience, and satisfaction with our company. The latest round of improvements was done with our customers in mind. We cannot thank them enough for their comments and suggestions. They proved invaluable in making the proper adjustments to the way VoIP Supply does business.”
The flat rate $4.99 ground shipping includes the Continental US as well as Alaska and Hawaii. The new 30 day no-hassle return policy applies to all new in box shipments, regardless of manufacturer. Additional changes that are sure to benefit the customer are a faster, streamlined, online checkout process, refinement of credit card usage policies, and new policies centered on delivering remarkable customer service. For more information on the new changes at VoIP Supply, please visit www.voipsupply.com.
About VoIP Supply, LLC
VoIPSupply, LLC (www.voipsupply.com), is a leading Internet Retailer of Voice over IP products and services. In addition to a comprehensive selection of IP phones, networking equipment and software platforms, the company offers provisioning and fulfillment, custom configuration, technical support, extended warranties and logistical services for end-to-end customer solutions. VoIP Supply was recently honored as a 2006 Entrepreneur/ Pricewaterhouse Coopers Hot 100 fastest growing US company and was selected as the fastest growing company in Western New York by Buffalo’s Business First Newspaper. For additional information on VoIP Supply, LLC please contact Garrett Smith at 716.250.3408 or [email protected] .
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Here is this weeks top VoIP stories:
SAN DIEGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Aug. 8, 2006–Switchvox, a leading provider of IP PBX phone systems for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and VoIPSupply.com, the largest single source for Voice over IP (VoIP) products and services, have partnered, enabling VoIP Supply to sell Switchvox SMB on its new PBXselect.com e-commerce Web site.
Switchvox SMB is built from open source software and uses open standards. The IP PBX allows companies to make calls using traditional analog lines, as well as VoIP services. The system can be peered to allow free VoIP calls between office locations, in addition to offering comprehensive reporting tools to monitor the solution’s performance in real time.
The agreement will allow VoIP Supply to deliver Switchvox to end users and resellers in a faster and more flexible way than other solutions because of Switchvox’s turnkey software architecture and instantaneous software delivery infrastructure. VoIP Supply will also be able to use any handsets its customers request and further leverage its distribution arrangements with leading IP handset manufacturers. The new VoIP Supply site provides SMBs with IP PBX systems like Switchvox SMB.
“VoIP Supply has one of the largest online reseller communities in the industry and this new sales channel will open the door for increased revenues for Switchvox,” said Joshua Stephens, CEO of Switchvox. “We are excited to be involved with the launch of PBXselect.com and look forward to developing a long-term relationship with VoIP Supply to provide innovative IP PBX solutions tailored for the SMB market.”
“We found the Switchvox product to be one of the best IP PBX solutions for the SMB audience,” said Garrett Smith, Director of Marketing and Business Development at VoIP Supply. “The addition of the Switchvox SMB to our product catalog will allow us to continue our trend of delivering the most innovative VoIP products and services to our customers.”
Switchvox products are sold as turnkey solutions that include the server hardware and pre-installed Switchvox software. Switchvox SMB is available starting at $2,495. Further information on Switchvox SMB can be found at www.switchvox.com. Information on how to purchase the product can be found at www.VoIPSupply.com.
About Switchvox
Switchvox is a leading provider of PBX and VoIP phone systems for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The company’s SOHO product enables small and home offices to easily and affordably create and manage their phone system, using traditional analog lines, as well as VoIP services. The Switchvox SMB product is a full-featured, more advanced IP PBX system for larger organizations. Based on Linux and other open source software, Switchvox has created software products that fit business and consumer needs. Headquartered in San Diego, California, more information on the company can be found at www.switchvox.com.
VoIP subcriptions jumped 21% in Quarter 2 according to a TeleGeography US VoIP Report. Vonage is still the market leaderwith 1.8 Million subscribers, but Time Warner is a close number two with 1.6 Million. Comcast, the number four VoIP service provider, had an insane 73% increase in subscribers, bringing in 305,000 new subscribers! Comcast’s subscriptions for quarter two beat out Vonage, Time Warner, and Cable Vision. The graph on the right documents the VoIP subscriber growth from Q1 2003 through Q2 2006.
The Belkin wireless Skype phone doesn’t require a PC and will work anywhere in the world where you have secured or open access to a WiFi network.Any home, office, cafe, or municipal wireless access point that does not require browser-based authentication will do. Pre-loaded with Skype software and featuring the same Skype interface, the Belkin Wi-Fi Phone is ready to use with any wireless network.To make a call, simply use the intuitive on-screen color menu to locate your contact and view their online availability-exactly like you use Skype today. The phone is Skype Certified and is touted as having excellent voice quality, WEP, WPA, and WPA2 with PSK support. The phone is 802.11b/g compliant and comes pre-loaded with Skype software and standard Skype interface. The phone will have a list price of $189.99. Look for this one on our shelves later this month!
By BRUCE MEYERSON AP Business Writer
NEW YORK Aug 9, 2006 (AP)— Matrix Partners is investing $13.2 million in Digium Inc., the creator and coordinator of Asterisk, a popular open-source PBX software platform for business phone systems that’s based on Linux and Internet Protocol.
The funding announced Wednesday marks the first round of venture capital for Digium, which oversees development of the free Asterisk platform, but is also one of a growing number of companies selling a customized phone system derived from the software.
The investment comes amid modest, but growing interest in a new generation of technologies that seek to replace the traditional office switchboard and phone system often referred to as a PBX, or private branch exchange. Earlier this year, for example, Azure Capital Partners invested $5 million in Fonality, which makes an Asterisk-based phone system.
At last count, there were 130 vendors of Asterisk-based business voip systems, and more than a thousand software developers are downloading the source code each day, according to Digium. However, none of that activity generates any revenue. Digium won’t disclose any specific data on its financial performance, but says it has been profitable since 2002, generating 100 percent growth in revenues each year since.
Where the conventional products sold by major vendors can cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for a business to buy, the new systems based on Asterisk and other Internet technologies can be purchased by a small company for as little as $1,000.
The IP-based systems also inject new programming flexibility and features for users to customize to the needs of their companies. Some of these products are delivered remotely over the Internet from a vendor’s servers rather than being installed on a computer at a company’s facility.
Matrix manages $2.5 billion in assets from offices in Boston, Silicon Valley and India.
“We have maintained steady growth and have been consistently profitable. We felt seeking outside funding was unnecessary, but Matrix Partners’ success and vision in the open source industry was too compelling to ignore,” said Mark Spencer, president of Digium and creator of Asterisk.
Thinking of implementing Asterisk, Asterisk Business Edition or TrixBox (Formerly Asterisk @ Home)? Asterisk is growing in popularity as a viable alternative to often expensive, proprietary IP PBX solutions from tier 1 vendors. Asterisk is open source software which is maintained by Digium as well as a host of volunteer coders around the globe.
If you are new to open source telephony, below are a few good places to begin learning about these technologies:
Asterisk WIKI at VoIP-Info.org
YATE – Yet Another Telephony Engine
With the advent of various GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces) for Asterisk, the barriers to entry for businesses and other users lacking Uber-Geeks in the backoffice are slowly being removed. Asterisk supports both SIP and IAX protocols for VoIP calling, with SIP being the most commonly used.
In addition to the Asterisk software and Linux variant operating system, you’re going to need some basic hardware elements to get started. Asterisk is commonly hosted on a server, which can be a desktop type PC, or a more industrial, rackmount type server.
Both Intel and AMD based machines will work. Configured properly, Asterisk is not an extremely “resource intensive” application, and can run on a fairly lean hardware configuration. A good base system would require:
Asterisk is commonly deployed in a “hybrid” scenario, with calls being placed via VoIP, as well as over the PSTN. Digium, Sangoma and Rhino produce PCI interface cards allowing for PBX connectivity to the legacy PSTN, as well as digital T1/PRI, E1 and ISDN/BRI. Analog cards are available with FXS Ports, FXO ports, or a combination of both. Additional upgrade modules providing echo cancellation are also available. Some Digium PCI cards require a specific voltage PCI slot, either 3.3V or 5V. Be sure to adequately research your motherboard prior to purchasing a Digium PCI board.
Asterisk supports the use of both IP enabled telephones, as well as traditional analog telephones used in conjunction with an ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter), Gateway or Channel Bank. IP Enabled telephones can be connected directly to the network, whereas analog telephones are going to require a bit of extra hardware to connect to your Asterisk server.
Popular SIP phones for use with Asterisk include:
In future posts, we’ll explore setting up Asterisk, and performing basic configuration on the various hardware elements involved.
This is the first installment of the VoIP Week in Review, a segment that will become a weekly feature on the VoIP Supply blog. Here are some of the biggest stories in the industry this week:
Check back next Friday for the next installment of the VoIP Week in Review.
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