Stories by: Steve Taylor and Larry Hettick

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IBM's top 5 predictions for unified communications: Desktop computers and phones will disappear 25 March, 2008 09:42:15

VoiceCon 2008 wrapped up in the US last week and the conference was jam-packed with news, announcements, and observable trends so we will spend the next several editions reviewing a few highlights. In his keynote address, Mike Rhodin, Lotus Software general manager gave five predictions about global unified communications and in a follow-up interview, Larry got the chance to find out how IBM will invest up to US$1 billion to help meet the changing business communications requirements.
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Skype, Netgear collaborate on Wi-Fi phone 12 January, 2006 10:54:51

At last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Skype and Netgear announced they are working on a family of products, including the world's first Skype wireless mobile telephone and a router equipped to optimize Skype.
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The rise of SIP and IMS 19 July, 2005 10:30:14

Today we'll continue our retrospective on the past five years in the world of convergence, this time looking at what has evolved in the core network. When we started this newsletter five years ago, we defined one of the faces of convergence as "network convergence" - defining it as the integration of data and voice networks' transport and signaling infrastructures in a carrier's core network.
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Court's clarification an important one 07 July, 2005 13:01:44

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling, in the case of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association vs. Brand X, that we believe will affirm how Internet services will be provided and who will be required (or not required) to provide them.
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Telecom consolidation doesn't hurt competition 23 February, 2005 10:12:18

Last week, another big acquisition: Verizon announced it would acquire MCI for US$6.7 billion in cash and stock. As we noted when SBC announced its intent to acquire AT&T, some will cry out for the poor customers, suggesting competition is going to die. And as we said before, we don't buy the unwarranted crocodile tears. Today, we'd like to talk a little bit about why we maintain our position that competition is alive and well.
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Managed services evolve 01 December, 2004 09:02:32

Managed services for voice and data are nothing new. For example, all Tier 1 carriers have long offered a managed "voice VPN," and the last five years have seen increased uptake on managed frame relay services and managed router services. But now service providers are expanding their managed services beyond the network layer into applications for both wireline and wireless environments.