Call it wideband telephony. Call it HD Voice.

I doesn’t matter what you call it. It’s here and it’s here to stay.

But where did wideband telephony first emerge? Where are we really at with HD calling today? And most importantly, what does the future for High Definition calling hold for us?

And with Phone.com’s recent announcement of the first ever Hosted HD voice phone network, I thought who better to talk about the past, present and future of wideband telephony than their EVP and CTO Alon Cohen. And I mean that because Alon’s no slouch.

He co-founder VocalTec and is the inventor of the Audio Transceiver that enabled the creation of Voice Over Networks products and eventually the VoIP industry. Told you he’s no slouch

Without further…
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Move over snom 870. The Aastra 6739i is here.

Earlier today at the BroadSoft Connections executive conference Aastra formally announced the 6739i, a SIP based color touch screen. The latest desktop VoIP phone to hit the market touting a color touch screen.
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Earlier today leading VoIP provider 8×8 (Packet8) announced that they had been award a new patent.

Typically when I see news like this I pass. But when I read through the release, I became much more interested.

I became interested in 8×8’s new patent because it could potential impact other VoIP providers and VoIP equipment manufacturers in a major way. I say this because the patent touches upon a commonly used method for setting-up VoIP phones and adapters fro use with their service - auto-provisioning.
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There’s nothing sexy about PSTN connectivity cards. But that’s not stopping the folks at Sangoma from making them a little more attractive for do-it-yourself and professional open source PBX systems builders.

Announced last week at Astricon, Sangoma’s new B601 series cards are based off the Sangoma B600 series. The B601 series cards feature one T1/E1/J1 digital port, along with four analog FXO ports and one analog FXS port.
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Hosted VoIP providers sell a lot of endpoints so I’m always keeping tabs on what’s going on in the hosted VoIP provider space. With small medium offices loosening up with the stabilization of the economy, many hosted VoIP providers are coming with new offerings and promotions to capitalize on the opening wallets.

Nextiva launches vFAX online fax service

Emerging hosted VoIP provider Nextiva broadened their service portfolio with the announcement of their vFAX online fax service. Online fax services are a great compliment to hosted VoIP, especially in small and distributed office environments.

vFAX is similar to other online fax services like MyFax and eFax.com, but does have a few unique aspects like the ability to use an existing fax machine and Microsoft Outlook Integration. Plus they’re offering lower monthly and per minute charges than competitors.

Recently I reviewed Nextiva’s service after having used it for a few months. It was solid and suspect the same holds true with vFAX. Check out more here.

Vocalocity lowers upfront investment costs for new customers

Fresh off the launch of a new website, Vocalocity has announced some insane price discounts on Linksys phones for new sign-ups on Twitter. With prices starting at just $69.99 new customers can save more than $30 a phone.

That’s some really great savings on a really great line of VoIP phones. Check out their Tweet for more details.

Telesphere nabs another $7M

Okay it’s not a new offering or promotion, but it’s notable that Phoenix based Telesphere secured another $7M in venture financing earlier this month. This brings their total funding to $32 million.

One can definitely take this as an indicator that there’s healthy demand for hosted services from businesses small and large.

Expect this to continue for quite some time. Buyers are starting to spend again, but their still very cautious and price conscience. That fits right into a hosted offering,s value proposition.

Note: Vocalocity is a site sponsor. Seriously though. It’s a great promotion.

When I first started selling and marketing VoIP equipment one question I fielded quite often was, “How can you get Fax over IP to be reliable?”

The answer was always the same, “Well, you can’t really. Some times it works. And most of the time it seems it doesn’t.”

That was over six years ago.
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