The Service Provider VoIP Leader Is.... Cisco?

That's right, Nortel-lovers. Thanks largely to Time Warner and Comcast, Cisco has nabbed the top spot. And, if forecasts hold true, Cisco will be laying the smackdown on our friends to the north for the rest of the year.

Gateways are good. Now where are the apps?

Here's what LightReading had to say:

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=117919

End of The Road For LogicaCMG Telecom

The market leader in mobile messaging and a major supplier of telecommunications infrastructure around the world -- LogicCMG didn't see a bright future in telecom. So, they sold out their Telecom unit for $250M to a group of money men. For 60% of the SMS market in Europe, that is a pretty sad number -- but cash always helps with the tears.

Here's what ZDnet had to say:

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/0,1000000085,39286015,00.htm

Skype -- "It's Not A Walled Garden, It's A Prison!"

VoIP firm Skype wants the Federal Communications Commission to force cellular providers into letting people have more choice about how they connect to those wireless networks. Essentially, they want phones with EV-DO or HSPDA to be allowed to access VoIP providers for calling services. They might be the first to pick up this banner, but they certainly won't be the last. We've seen Web 2.0, Voice 2.0 and, wait for it, this is the birth of Mobile 2.0 -- a cell phone that whose provider you DON'T use for voice calls -- or at least not for expensive ones.

Here's what WebProNews had to say:

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/02/22/skype-to-fcc-let-my-people-go

Harris Poll -- "Message and Mode Go Hand in Hand"

A new Harris Interactive poll called YouthQuery examines the way teens communicate using a variety of technologies such as the Internet, cell phone, text messaging and other forms of communication. According to Suzanne Martin, PhD, Youth and Education Researcher at Harris Interactive, “Teens utilize different modes of communication in different social contexts".

Here what WebProNews had to say:

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/02/22/how-teens-communicate-online-and-off

Avaya To Integrate With Google Apps

Proving once again that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Avaya has swung back at Microsoft by partnering with arch-rival, Google. The pair will develop a suite of integrated communication services for small business.

Besides the folks in Redmond, you can imagine that a certain service provider whose name starts with an "A" and ends with a "T" and who just launched an major small business intitiative will be watching this very carefully. Can you say net-neutrality?

Google Targets Small Business

Google is pushing further into the communication and collaboration applications market with a major upgrade of Google Apps, a hosted suite for organizations of all sizes that analysts say could soon become a real competitor to Microsoft Office.

On Thursday, Google will introduce a Google Apps version that, for a fee, offers guaranteed uptime, IT management tools, technical support, increased e-mail storage, and integration with the Docs & Spreadsheets word processing and spreadsheet applications, as well as BlackBerry support for Gmail.

Here's what InfoWorld had to say:

http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/02/22/HNgoogleappsthreatens_1.html

Vonage Gets Creative With Calls: SunRocket Responds

According to LightReading, Vonage is set to unveil a new set of call management capabilities to dazzle customers. These will include the ability to conditionally forward or block calls based on calling party information -- think white/black lists, only smarter.

SunRocket, a chief competitor to Vonage, rightly points out that the user experience is always the gating factor with these kinds of features. One can't help but be debuious of any intiative that seeks to add even more capabilties to the already feature saturated VoIP marketplace.

Here's what Light Reading had to say:

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=116274

Informa: Wireless Content & Services To Boom

The market for content and services on cell phones is expected to grow to $150 billion by 2011, research from Informa Telecoms & Media showed. Leading the pack of revenue generating monsters is SMS and services that leverage the all-popular text messaging application.

Here's the what Informa had to say via Yahoo News:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070201/tc_nm/telecoms_informa_dc_1

AudioCodes Buys CTI2

AudioCodes announced today that is would be purchase CTI2 for approximately 15M USD -- turning the developer of messaging and calling services into a wholly owned subsidiary. AudioCodes had acquired a 10% stake in the Israeli value-added service provider last year.

This marks the second major acquisition of a value-added services developer by a media server vendor in as many months. The first being the purchase of Glenayre Messaging by IP Unity.

Here's the press release via Sys-Con Media:

http://www.sys-con.com/read/330981.htm