net127

Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 10:10:02 -0400
From: BroadVoice
Reply-To:
Subject: Service Notification

Dear Valued Customer,

BroadVoice has been notified by one of our underlying carriers that there is a possibility of losing inbound service to your BroadVoice number today (April 25, 2006). One of our underlying carriers has been in an ongoing dispute with Verizon. Verizon has notified the carrier that they will terminate service in Massachusetts, anytime after noon today. Unfortunately BroadVoice can not avert the underlying carrier’s potential service termination but we will be working very closely with all parties to ensure that if a service interruption occurs, the impact will be minimized. Please note that BroadVoice is not in dispute with any carrier. This will only affect your inbound service. Your ability to dial out using your BroadVoice service will not be affected.

BroadVoice apologies in advance for any inconvenience that this MAY cause.

Regards,

BroadVoice

Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 12:02:29 -0500
From: “NuFone Operations”
Subject: NuFone Update: Number Outage Update

We realize many people rely on the telephone numbers that we provide, but unfortunately the situation is currently out of our control. We are currently working to resolve the issues with our provider and hope to have service restored soon. NuFone is committed to keeping our customers in the loop during this outage and we will provide daily updates with our progress at http://www.nufone.net/press/.

Thank you for your continued support during this difficult time.

The NuFone Network
http://www.nufone.net/

Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 11:56:37 -0500
From: “NuFone Operations”
Subject: NuFone Update: DID Outage

Telesthetic has chosen to terminate our DID services before allowing us
to properly migrate the network elements to our new carrier.

A solution is in progress, but due to Telesthetic’s lack of cooperation
in this situation, your Toll-Free and Michigan DID services have been effected.
Outbound calling has not been effected by this situation whatsoever.

Unless Telesthetic elects to do the right thing and restore our services,
your Toll-Free numbers will be down for a few hours if not most of the day
although we hope it will be much shorter.

As for Michigan DIDs, we currently have no other carrier that is capable
of porting those numbers and Telesthetic has been completely uncooperative
with providing us with recommendations on who we could turn to. If anyone
has any suggestions, we more than welcome them.

We will post updates on our website as we have more information to provide.

Thank you for your continued support.

The NuFone Network
http://www.nufone.net/

Red Herring reports:

XO Communications has connected its telecommunications facilities to Stealth Communications’ VoIP peering fabric, allowing the carrier to bypass the public telephone network and its termination fees.

Stealth operates a Voice Peering Fabric (VPF), essentially a wide-area Ethernet network that is a kind of private Internet, allowing member carriers to route calls to each other’s subscribers without the calls going through the public telephone network.

For instance, a call from an XO subscriber to an RCN subscriber will never leave the network and will be free to the subscriber making the call.

XO, the largest of the member companies on Stealth’s VPF, will become the main outlet for calls to subscribers of traditional telephone companies, the companies said on Tuesday. Calls from a VPF member carrier to a public network subscriber will be routed through XO, which is one of the largest non-Bell carriers in the United States.
(more…)

Red Herring reports:

The Shenzhen branch of China Telecom, China’s largest telecommunications carrier, has begun blocking VoIP calls in a possible effort to stanch the massive loss of revenue it could sustain if a substantial percentage of that country’s 100 million Internet users switch their long-distance calling to services like Skype.
(more…)

Inveneo announces:

At 11:10am PST on June 8th, with a VoIP phone call from the Community Knowledge Center to the village of Nyamiryango, Inveneo’s first solar and pedal powered communications system went live in the Bukuuku sub-county, Kabarole district of Western Uganda. This successful deployment was completed in partnership with ActionAid, and enables villagers to use a phone, computer and the Internet for the first time ever, empowering them to use communications and technology to improve their lives dramatically.
(more…)

DAVID PACE, Associated Press Writer, via Slashdot, reports:

(05-19) 14:06 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) –

Internet phone providers were ordered Thursday to begin supplying reliable 911 emergency call service after regulators heard an anguished Florida woman describe how she was unable to summon help to save her dying infant daughter.

The Federal Communication Commission gave companies 120 days to certify that their customers will be able to reach an emergency dispatcher when they call 911. Also, dispatchers must be able to tell where callers are located and the numbers from which they are calling.
(more…)

voip-info.org reports:

After several months of live testing VoIP operation in Europe and Asia, SS7 is now available for Asterisk. The LIBISUP solution is fully integrated with Asterisk and does not require any additional external equipment.

The SS7 LIBISUP library presents itself as a replacement of the LIBPRI library. This means that you can use the existing Asterisk zap features and applications. The configuration, dial plans, etc. work the same way as with PRI. Both the stable release and CVS Head are supported.

The product is immediately available under the Digium commercial licence.
For more information please write to
   
and describe your SS7 project.
(more…)

Geekzone, via Slashdot, reports:

America Online, Inc. began the rollout of the AOL Internet Phone Service, an enhanced Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service that offers AOL members a choice for their voice, e-mail and instant messaging communications.

The service is being introduced in more than 40 markets across the United States, the first phase of a rollout across the country that will continue to additional cities over the coming months. The company says that the service will offer cost-saving pricing over traditional telephone service and an enhanced suite of integrated voice and online messaging features.

For the AOL Internet Phone Service alone, AOL members can choose from three price plans with introductory offer rates. A Local Plan is available, costing US$13.99 per month for the first three months for unlimited local and regional calls and US$0.04 per minute for long distance calls anywhere in the US and Canada, costing US18.99 per month thereafter.

An Unlimited Calling Plan costing US$24.99 per month for the first three months for one flat fee for local and long distance calls within the US and Canada ($29.99 per month thereafter) is also available, and the company offers the Global Calling Plan, at US$29.99 per month for the first three months, including unlimited local and long distance calls within the US and Canada and low international rates (US$34.99 per month thereafter).
(more…)

Steve, Wl Com, on asterisk-biz writes:

The Mexican PGR http://www.pgr.gob.mx/ arrested two people connected with
Vonage here in Mexico. The arrest team included members of SCT
(http://portal.sct.gob.mx/SctPortal/) and Comission Federal de
telecomunicaciones (http://www.cofetel.gob.mx).
[..]
Reason. Operating in Mexico without a Local concession and using VOIP for
transporting traffic outside of Mexico without a Long Distance concession.
(more…)

DAVID PADDON, cnews reports:

TORONTO (CP) — Companies that sell Internet telephone service to the public must provide at least basic emergency 911 service, Canada’s telecommunications regulator ruled Monday.

“It’s quite a sweeping decision that says 911 is fundamental to telephone service in Canada and if you’re going to offer phone service here, you must offer it,” commented telecom industry consultant Ian Angus.
(more…)

Via Slashdot, From Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s News Release:

AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today filed a lawsuit against Vonage, the country’s largest Internet-based telephone service provider, for failing to make clear to consumers that the company’s current service does not include access to traditional emergency 9-1-1 service.

The dangers posed by Vonage’s failure to clearly disclose the lack of traditional 9-1-1 access surfaced last month when a Houston family that subscribed to Vonage’s service tried to call 9-1-1 during a home invasion. Two victims were shot multiple times, but the victims’ daughter was never able to get through to 9-1-1.
(more…)

The Associated Press reports:

(3/15/05 - HOUSTON) — Joyce John was upstairs at home after school one day when suddenly she heard gunshots and her parents screaming. Her mother, faced with two armed robbers, yelled for the 17-year-old to dial 911.

When she did, the teenager heard this message: “Stop. You must dial 911 from another telephone. 911 is not available from this telephone line. No emergency personnel will be dispatched.”

John’s parents were both bleeding from gunshot wounds by the time she realized the Internet phone service her family used did not offer 911 service. It took a frantic 10 minutes after the robbers fled the home for her to reach another phone — at a neighbor’s house.
(more…)

Michael Singer, Internet News, (via Slashdot) writes:

Voice over IP (VoIP) promises to radically change the way companies do business, but one side effect of less expensive communications threatens to give the whole ecosystem a black eye.

Overseas telemarketers are quickly learning that they can use IP voice calls to “dial for dollars,” getting around both traditional long-distance cost constraints and U.S. Do-Not-Call regulations to flood Internet traffic with phone calls that would make even the most egregious spammer blush.

“If you thought spam was bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” Burton Group analyst Fred Cohen told internetnews.com. “The average enterprise or household could see as much as 150 calls a day from these telemarketers. It has to happen, because it is a market force that takes the market feedback and makes it into a profitable approach.”
(more…)

Jeff Baumgartner, CED via asterisk-biz list:

The Federal Communications Commission has slapped the hand of a North
Carolina-based telco for engaging in VoIP blocking, a practice that can
prevent customers of Vonage and other broadband-enabled voice services from
accessing service.

The FCC on Thursday said it had reached a $15,000 consent decree with
Madison River Communications LLC, a move “that will ensure uninterrupted
Internet voice service on the company’s network.”
(more…)

Evan Schuman, eWeek, reports:

A hungry consumer pulls up to the drive-through window in a California McDonald’s restaurant and places a dinner order. The person taking the order points out that the caller placed only three drink orders for four dinners and reminds the diner of a special that day on apple pie.

This might be a fairly typical fast-food—or, in industry parlance, QSR for quick-service restaurant—exchange were it not for the fact that the customer and the order-taker are dozens of miles apart, connected through a VPN-secured voice-over-IP hookup.
(more…)

bnamericas.com, via SineApps, reports:

Mexico’s telecoms regulator Cofetel has closed down 13 voice over internet protocol (VoIP) firms for operating without the proper concessions, according to local newspaper El Financiero.

Mexico has no specific VoIP regulatory structure but companies wishing to offer the service must have concessions and obey legal orders, according to Cofetel president Jorge Arredondo.

“Independent of the technology, companies ought to have a concession, observe the international telecoms rules, go through international gateways and respect local telephony rules, among other things,” Arredondo was reported as saying.

BoingBoingreports:

Authorities in Belarus — the land of my forefathers — have arrested a man for using and providing voice-over-IP services. Check out the way they characterized his activity, “damage to the country’s communications providers,” whew!

US citizen Ilya Mafter has been detained in Belarus because he was believed to have caused about 100,000 US dollars in damage to the country’s communications providers, the Interfax news agency cited sources in the State Security Committee as reporting on Tuesday.

“A preliminary report suggests that damage of about 100,000 US dollars was caused to Belarussian communications providers, including the Beltelecom company, as a result of illegal communications services using IP telephony that were organized by Mafter,” the source said.

The US citizen, who was detained on Oct. 16, is also suspected of “working as an entrepreneur without registration or permission,” said the source.

(more…)

DAVID LEONHARDT, The New York Times, writes:

MAYBE you have had the fantasy while sitting at home for an entire afternoon and waiting for a 10-minute visit from the phone company to install a new telephone line. Or maybe the dream has come to you while were you on hold, once again, hoping to resolve the latest billing mix-up caused by Verizon, SBC or whichever local phone company dominates your market.
(more…)

Jeff Pulver (), in The Pulver Report - December 8, 2003 Issue, writes:

The National Emergency Number Association (NENA) and VoIP leaders forged
an agreement to provide access to emergency service for VoIP users

NENA and the companies have agreed upon the following action items:

* For service to customers using phones that have the functionality
and appearance of conventional telephones, 911 emergency services
access will be provided (at least routing to a Public Safety Access Point
(PSAP) 10-digit number) within a reasonable time (three to six months),
and prior to that time inform customers of the lack of such access.
(more…)

KATIE HAFNER, The New York Times, reports:

Perhaps because of its geographic remoteness, Dartmouth College in the small town of Hanover, N.H., has long been willing to try novel means of communication.

The college introduced e-mail messaging to campus in the 1980’s, well ahead of most other higher educational institutions. And in 2001, it was one of the first colleges to install a campuswide wireless data network.

Now, the college is venturing into the world of “voice over Internet protocol,” also known as VoIP, which essentially turns a computer into a telephone.

This week, as classes begin, the 1,000 students entering the class of 2007 will be given the option of downloading software, generically known as softphones, onto Windows-based computers.

Using the software together with a headset, which can be plugged into a computer’s U.S.B. port, the students can make local or long-distance telephone calls free. Each student is assigned a traditional seven-digit phone number.
(more…)

Mack Allison writes:

The Asterisk Private Branch Exchange (PBX) and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) platform offers an exciting look at the power and adaptability of the Linux kernel and GNU system. Asterisk turns a GNU/Linux system to the task of switching calls, and offers a large number of features to support communication in the business environment.
(more…)