The Ministry of Information and Communication yesterday revealed a plan to promote Internet-based telephony services by creating a dedicated dialing code for voice-over-Internet protocol calls.
The IP-only prefix, 070, could be used anywhere in the country and will be assigned to operators providing services that meet the quality requirements set by the Telecommunications Technology Association.

The association will require operators to provide services with a minimum 70 rating, a voice quality evaluation standard used by the International Telecommunication Union, that translates to greater than 95 percent connection success rate. Signals must be transmitted to receivers within 1.5 seconds.

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SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE:SBC) today announced that the SBC family of companies has been rated as the leading provider of business hosted IP voice services by International Data Corporation (IDC), a leading global market intelligence and advisory firm focused on the information technology and telecommunications industries.

In the report, IDC predicts that hosted services will emerge as a leading platform for business IP telephony, also known as Voice over IP (VoIP). IP telephony is rapidly growing in the business market as companies look to take advantage of the cost efficiencies and advanced features enabled by the technology. Hosted services deliver IP telephony functionality over carrier networks rather than premises- based equipment, allowing businesses to adopt the technology without extensive equipment purchases or ongoing management concerns.

IDC’s forecast of the U.S. business hosted IP voice services market is based on analysis of service providers and end-user demand for hosted IP voice services. The industry analyst firm analyzed all of the existing hosted IP voice service providers, looking at criteria such as market opportunity and the ability to gain share. Based on this research, the SBC family of companies was ranked ahead of all other service providers – including incumbent local exchange carriers, competitive local exchange carriers and virtual network operators – and cited as the “top contender for market leadership in terms of revenue and market reach.”

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In a private sale of stock, Burlington-based iBasis Inc. has raised $31.5 million which it intends to use for general corporate purposes.

IBasis carries telephone traffic between countries by sending voice over Internet protocol, cutting costs by lessening the need for carrier clients to reserve dedicated circuits to transfer signals. It also sells retail prepaid calling cards that use VoIP technology.

The company sold 15 million shares at $2.10 each, 2 cents below their closing price Friday. The company did not immediately identify the purchasers except to say they were both new and existing investors.

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EV-DO, EDGE and EV-DV will do great things for VoIP Mobility. Feature rich, ubiquitous mobile voip is sure to be the holy grail in IP communications. Take your free SIP account and place it anywhere in the network and chop off that last mile of legacy, as long as we can get a flat rate on the bandwidth life would be bliss 🙂

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Verizon Wireless Expands EV-DO Service to 14 Markets
Verizon Wireless will launch its CDMA2000 1xEV-DO “BroadbandAccess” service in 14 major metropolitan areas beginning next week. These cities include: Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Milwaukee, New York, Philadelphia, Tampa, and West Palm Beach. The service is already offered in San Diego and Washington D.C., as well as the recently announced Las Vegas metropolitan area.

The network offers average user speeds of 300-500 kbps.

BroadbandAccess is available for $79.99 monthly access for unlimited use with a one-year customer agreement.
http://news.vzw.com
22-Sep-04

In July 2004, Verizon Wireless awarded a contract valued at least $5 billion to Lucent Technologies for supplying a wide variety of network equipment, software and services for Verizon Wireless’ national next-generation voice and data network based on CDMA2000 1xEV-DO technology. With this agreement Lucent will continue as Verizon Wireless’ primary next-generation network infrastructure supplier. Under the agreement, Lucent will provide infrastructure and technology spanning its entire portfolio, including its Flexent Modular Cell 4.0 base stations. Lucent Worldwide Services will perform network optimization, integration, planning and design and deployment services. The deal includes the $525 million contract announced in March, naming Lucent as a key supplier for Verizon Wireless’s BroadbandAccess high-speed data network.

more of the same, but different…