39 Free Soft Phones
Matt Riddell of VentureVoIP is always informative and a great read. This morning I see that he has posted an article listing 39 Free Soft Phones. What a great resource! He goes so far as to only list those that…
Junction Network’s OnSIP Team Reviews Phones
Junction Network’s is more than a little unusual amongst hosted IP-PBX providers. They cater specifically to an SMB clientele with accounts typically ranging from 3 to 50 seats. One of the things that sets them apart from other providers is that they don’t force you into specific hardware. When you sign up with them you bring your own phones. (BYOP?)
It’s much more common that providers insist you buy their phones. If they can limit you to only using a certain family of phones it reduces their support requirements. The trouble is, it also limits the end-user flexibility. You might not be able to deploy the ideal sort of devices for your business.
Google Voice & Why Free Makes Me Nervous
I’m an early adopter and I admit that freely. I opened a Grand Central account early its history, converted that to Google Voice when the time came, and have generally been impressed with the service. But I don’t use it much. I truly don’t feel that I can afford to use it for a variety for reasons.
The internet has created this crazy new paradigm of free services. The list is lengthy; Google apps, Twitter, Hotmail, Facebook, Blogger, Yahoo Pipes, Posterous, Gmail & WordPress.com are just a few. Free services are literally everywhere these days, like manna from heaven.
Steven Perich Reviews The Jabra M5390 Wireless Headset
Fellow wideband enthusiast Steven Perich (@boxdog) just posted a review of the new Jabra M5390 Wireless headset. Based upon Bluetooth and supposedly wideband capable, he tried the version of the device that ships with a USB dongle for use with…
Dan Berninger’s “Telecom Turnaround”
Earlier this week Dan Berninger, CEO of the newly formed HDConnect trade group offered up another guest post on Jeff Pulver’s blog. In this post, entitled “Telecom Turnaround,” Dan outlines the decline in demand for traditional voice services over the past decade. He also hints at the typical arguments that nay-sayers offer against wideband telephony. It’s all good stuff.
There’s something that I’d like to add to what Dan puts forward. By whatever name it’s known, HDVoice, HD VoIP, or simply wideband telephony…improved call quality is only the beginning. When voice is just another application on an IP network there are a many advantages that can be realized. Improved call quality is just the first benefit that we’ll see (hear?), and possibly the easiest to sell both to the public and regulators.
Considering Wideband Audio Over The Traditional PSTN
Question: What was the first HDVoice product that Polycom offered?
Answer: The Polycom VTX 1000 conference phone.
The thing that makes this fact so curious is not immediately obvious. The VTX 1000 is not a SIP device, nor even IP capable. Like it’s closest relative the Polycom SoundStation 2, it’s designed to connect to a plain old analog phone line (a.k.a. POTS, the PSTN).
Of course, the common wisdom is that you just can’t have wideband telephony over the PSTN. Yet the VTX 1000, circa 2003, delivers wideband conference calls so it seems that assertion is not strictly true. Understanding this is in a little more depth would seem like a good thing. Happily, Polycom published a white paper describing the internals of the VTX 1000.