Verizon expands VoIP to Asia; finally enables “select” HD voice and video interop via VIPER

Verizon Business has expanded its VoIP solution to the Asia-Pacific region through its global network. The company has also finally added inter-company HD voice and video (i.e. SIP interop) for “select” VoIP customers that use Verizon’s opt-in VIPER IP-to-IP routing feature to skip out on per minute domestic and international charges on calls.

“Verizon [...]

Will biometrics voice ID push mobile HD voice in New Zealand?

Use of biometric voice ID – a subject the HD Voice News editor-in-chief presented at Black Hat once upon a time – in New Zealand government may encourage mobile carriers to move to HD voice, speculates Waikato Times.

Several New Zealand government agencies are moving ahead of banks in utilizing voice ID to [...]

Virtual PBX announces “VoIP Anywhere” with HD voice support

Virtual PBX (www.virtualpbx.com) announced the latest enhancements to its hosted PBX service, VoIP Anywhere.  The service can be accessed through any standard softphone, including clients on Android and the Apple iOS family.  

Devices appear as VoIP extensions in the Virtual PBX system, so calls made include full access to all system features, including [...]

IT EXPO Fall 2011–8×8 buys another cloud computing company

Austin, Texas – 8×8, once upon a time the poster child for business hosted HD voice, bought yet another cloud computing today.

8×8 is acquiring privately-held Contactual, a provider of cloud-based call center and customer interaction management (CRM by any other name) solutions, in an all-stock transaction not to exceed 6.7 million shares [...]

Siemens Enterprise Communications offers entry-level HD voice phone

Last month, Siemens Enterprise Communications announced the OpenStage 5 SIP phone. 

The SIP-only phone, along with the other members of the OpenStage family supporting SIP, includes G.722 and “AudioPresence™ HD.”  The AudioPresence™ HD package includes best-in-class speaker, microphone, and acoustic components, advanced noise rejection and echo cancellation.

OpenStage5 is an entry-level phone with [...]

The Cable Show 2011/#cable11–Comcast demos business HD voice offering

While nobody at Comcast was ready to talk about HD voice on the consumer side, the company was demonstrating in plain sight the capability to support it and videoconferencing on the business side.

 

The “Managed Business Class Voice” demonstration featured Polycom’s poster-child VVX video phone to do point-to-point video calls in Comcast’s [...]

Metaswitch adds home-grown HD voice UC soft client to portfolio

Metaswitch Networks (www.metaswitch.com) has added CommPortal Communicator to its growing portfolio of “We’re here to help the service provider” software applications.  The customizable UC client includes support for G.722.

CommPortal Communicator is available on Windows PCs, Apple i-devices and Android platforms. The software is designed to be a managed UC client for use by [...]

Ireland AirSpeed Telecom brags voice HD when talking cloud

Fixed-wireless operator AirSpeed Telecom has invested EUR1.6 million to develop a “cloud ready” network for Irish businesses, enabling scaled bandwidth up to 200 Mbps. Two new products, AirSpeed Cloud Connect and AirSpeed Resilient Circuit, have been specifically designed to support services moving to the cloud “Including HD voice, video, and time critical applications.”

Telstra pushes HD voice as a part of "Digital Business” solution

ARN (www.arnnet.com.au) reports Telstra is putting $600AU million into its network as a way of getting SMBs to use digital communications solutions. More importantly, Telstra is putting HD voice as a key role into its newly introduced Digital Business solution.

Digital Business combines a high-speed broadband service and VoIP with a QoS guarantee. The [...]

HD voice surge in next three years: Verizon, cable companies to lead deployments

Alexandria, VA — (April 7, 2011) — HD voice is expected to grow significantly over the next three years as Tier 1 service providers such as Cincinnati Bell, Comcast, France Telecom, and Verizon offer the technology to business, residential, and wireless customers. Already, seventeen mobile carriers have either operational service or announced plans for [...]