Tag Archive
Polycom Touts Channel Program Plans
Polycom (PLCM) announced it will launch a made-over partner program in April. Known as the Choice Program, the plan will offer tiered levels – Polycom Registered, Polycom Gold and Polycom Platinum – and a certification program, encouraging solution providers to become specialized in particular products and verticals. The Choice Program joins …(109 words) ... »
Massachusetts Miracle in the Making
Came across a patriotic video that will have your patriotic heart soaring – at least for the first 42 seconds. After that, how you view this video depends on how you view the current Obama administration. The premise of the video is how on April, 19, 1775 Americans first fought the British... »
Samsung Wins 23 ICES Innovation Awards
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., an established leader and innovator in consumer electronics, I.T. and Telecom, has won International CES 2010 Innovations Awards for 23 different products, including three best of innovation awards. Samsung has won more than 100 CES Innovation Awards in three years, for multiple product categories like; TVs, home theater, digital audio,... »
8×8 Outage Wasn’t Their Fault
As I wrote yesterday, the outage at 8×8 wasn’t likely their fault so i was quite pleased when their PR person, Joan Citelli, sent me this note today: Andy – I wanted to provide you with an update/explanation of what caused 8×8’s service outage this past Tuesday. In order to provide services to our customers from our... »
UC to grow to $30B market
According to two new reports from Wainhouse Research, the market for unified communications will grow to $30 billion within five years. Rapid growth will be due in large part to the complexity of premises-based UC products with UC services revenues outgrowing traditional conferencing services by 2013 or 2014. The market will rebound in the short... »
Will Android Pay for Google’s Moves in China?
British scribe Paul Carr is not one to mince words. For him, Google’s newfound morality around censorship and China is too little, too late. Four years too late, to be precise. And I agree with him — up to a point. Morality has to be absolute; it cannot be used as a tool of... »
In the First Week, Google May Have Sold 20,000 Nexus One Phones
When I spoke with Google’s mobile boss, Andy Rubin, he said that Google would be happy to sell about 150,000 Nexus One devices. That number, he said, would be enough for the Google Phone to get in front of a majority of American phone buyers who might want to take a look at it.... »
Packet8 Service Down
Almost exactly one year ago 8X8’s Packet8 VoIP service suffered a major outage due to DNS issues. It now appears that both their domains 8×8.com and www.packet8.net are down. But more importantly their VoIP phone service is down. Stay tuned while I try and find out more… Update #1: from Joan Citelli Director,... »
PocketMac Rescues Smartphones from the Toilet
Admit it, you’ve come close to doing the unthinkable – you text on your phone and surf the web while in the bathroom and when you get up to flush, your beloved phone slips out of your hand, your shirt pocket, or pants pocket and heads toward the toilet. You see your... »
Siemens, Shared Technologies To Partner
Siemens Enterprise Communications said last week that it planned to announce a VAR agreement this week with Shared Technologies. The five-year agreement will enable Shared Technologies to sell the Siemens OpenScape platform on a seat license basis. The company’s move will no doubt boost its channel penetration in the United …(110 words) ... »
Fonality Serves up 1 Billion Cloud VoIP Calls?
Today, Fonality announced it has served up its 1 billionth cloud call on their hosted VoIP platform called UNBOUND. UNBOUND is Fonality’s fully hosted cloud phone system and VoIP service solution and starts at $24.99/mo. Of course, Fonality also offers fully premise-based IP-PBX solutions as well. I like Fonality and the Fonality team, including Chris... »
Bisnoff Back as TelePacific Channel Chief
TelePacific Communications, a CLEC operating in California and Nevada, announced Thursday changes to its TelePartner program, including the return of Ken Bisnoff as its channel chief, changes to its support staff and new onboarding and training programs.Bisnoff, senior vice president of strategic opportunities, launched TelePacific’s Telepartner Channel Program in 2002 …(567 words) ... »
Cell Phones Do a Body (& Mind) Good
Well, well well – it appears that cell phone radiation isn’t all that bad; brain cancer be damned! You see, a recent study showed that electromagnetic radiation exposed to mice actually reversed Alzheimer’s disease and improved cognitive capabilities. So you see, you are smarter the more you use your smartphone. According to... »
Microsoft Channel Digs Discounts
Service-focused solutions providers could stand to gain from Microsoft’s (MSFT) license discounting. The company is making a push to jolt adoption of Windows 7 and the upcoming 2010 – and where partners usually might feel shorted by discounts cutting into margins, they are reporting satisfaction with increased customer service opportunities. …(78 words) ... »
VoxOx Launches Personal Assistant Version 2
Consumer Electronics Show (CES) — VoxOx by TelCentris, a free consumer service that unifies communication channels – voice, video, IM, text, social media, e-mail, fax and more – into a single user interface, has announced the launch of the second version of its personal assistant service, which enables consumers to …(405 words) ... »
Asterisk’s Growth Shines at ITEXPO
Asterisk just may be the #1 transforming VoIP company for the now past ’00s “aughts” decade, which is quite appropriate when you consider Asterisk in many respects costs $0 dollars due to being open source. Of course, nothing is truly free in this world. If you download and install Asterisk yourself for your company... »
Truphone Comes to Android – But no VoIP over 3G
Truphone fans will be happy to hear that the popular VoIP application now works on Android mobile handsets, though support for the new Google Nexus One is coming soon. Truphone’s new Android application enables free calls to other Truphone, Skype and Google Talk users – though only over Wi-Fi and not 3G. I don’t... »
Avaya Reveals Roadmap for Nortel Enterprise Assets at ITEXPO
Rich Tehrani and I are both excited to hear the future roadmap Avaya has in store for Nortel’s enterprise assets that Avaya recently acquired. Will Avaya slowly phase out these Nortel enterprise products, continue the product line with the Avaya brand, integrate best-of-breed technologies from Avaya and Nortel and offer new SMB products? The... »
Former Dell Channel Chief Joins Kaspersky
Dell’s channel chief, Nancy Reynolds, has left the company to join Kaspersky Lab, as the security vendor makes moves to grow its channel presence. Reynolds, who will serve as senior vice president, corporate sales, brings extensive channel sales and marketing expertise gained during more than 20 years of expanding SMB …(187 words) ... »
Talkbox Offers $10/month Unlimited U.S. and $20/month Unlimited World
Well, we have yet another played in the broadband VoIP space named Talkbox. They’re based in the Los Angeles area and acquire new customers primarily via mall outlets in the L.A. area. One of their representatives told me, “Our growth has been viral, mostly word of mouth and Vonage refugees. It’s because we... »
Google unveils Nexus One phone
Google has unveiled an own-brand smartphone called the Nexus One. The wraps were taken off the handset at an invitation-only event held at Google’s Mountain View HQ. The Nexus One is a slim, touchscreen phone built in partnership with Taiwanese manufacturer HTC and runs Google’s Android operating system. To read this BBC News report in full, see: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8442205.stm Also... »
Skype Brings 720p to HDTVs and PCs
Skype today introduced a high-definition (HD) video calling service that will work on computers and televisions. The newest version Skype 4.2 Beta for Windows, supports 720p video calling in a 1280×720 pixel resolution at 30 frames per second. The latest version of Skype will come pre-installed on some LG Electronics Inc. and... »
Boy Saved from Cougar by Golden Retriever
Yet another reason why dogs are the greatest – a Canadian boy named Austin was stalked by a cougar and when the cougar charged, Austin’s golden retriever, aptly named Angel sprang into action and leapt between them. The cougar and Golden Retriever wrestled while the boy ran inside so upset he was... »
Intel Predicts Channel Success
Thanks to the indirect channel’s ability to rapidly adapt to changing technologies, sales execs at Intel (INTC) believe the channel will play a key part in the company’s success in the coming year.Intel believes the channel is showing interest in specialized areas, such as kiosks and other non-general PC business, hence …(90 words) ... »
More on GENBAND’s Nortel CVAS bid
Just before the holiday break, GENBAND threw its hat into the Nortel ring in hopes of acquiring the Canadian vendor’s much coveted Carrier VoIP and Application Solutions (CVAS) unit. GENBAND launched a ’stalking horse’ bid for Nortel’s CVAS unit offering a purchase price for the CVAS unit of $282 million, but the total cost of... »
AT&T Latino Launches to Bring the Latest in Entertainment and Communications to Social Media-Savvy Hispanics
AT&T announced today the launch of three AT&T Latino channels on Facebook, MySpace and Youtube, as part of its commitment to give Spanish-speaking customers access to the content and services they want, whenever and wherever they want it. The new AT&T Latino social media platforms were designed to keep consumers up-to-speed on AT&T’s entertainment... »
AT&T Wants to Kill The PSTN
TMCnet contributor Gary Kim has an excellent article about AT&T asking the Federal Communications Commission to create a timetable to shutdown the analog PSTN phone system in the United States. AT&T explains that maintaining two networks – IP and PSTN is retarding the deployment of the newer broadband IP network. Ok, I’ll grant you... »
Google Voice VoIP in 2010?
eWeek has an interesting interview with Google’s Vice President of Product Management Bradley Horowitz where Bradley said he was very enthusiastic about Google’s acquisition of Gizmo5, a company that unlike Skype adopted the industry SIP standard. Gizmo5 brings technological know-how to Google in the areas of VoIP, SIP, and termination. Further, Gizmo5 has... »
MeetingOne Appoints VP of Enterprise, Channel Sales
MeetingOne, a provider of conferencing and collaboration solutions, has appointed Brandon Warren as its new vice president of enterprise and channel sales. Previously, Warren served as a director of channel sales, Americas and Europe at ACT Conferencing, where he was responsible for developing and executing channel sales contribution.With more than …(162 words) ... »
Digium Touts Channel Growth
Digium’s director of worldwide channel sales, Jim Butler, is reporting record interest from resellers, even in the face of a gloomy economy.Digium has been beefing up its channel program this year, adding resources and support, in hopes to grow that area of their business. The channel program, formally launched in …(96 words) ... »