Archive for June, 2004

Multi-Tech and Xten Demonstrate Interoperability between MultiVOIP Voice over IP Gateways and Xten SIP Softphones

Minneapolis, June 22, 2004 – Multi-Tech and Xten together have achieved SIP interoperability between MultiVOIP Voice over IP gateways and Xten’s family of SIP softphones. Xten provides a cost-effective, high-quality “software-only” IP phone that can talk to any MultiVOIP gateway. Together, the solution provides Voice over IP mobility allowing road warriors to capitalize on toll bypass voice connectivity.

“If you want to make calls via the Internet, and you are mobile, the best way to do that is with one of our softphones on your laptop,” explains Erik Lagerway, President and Chief Operating Officer of Xten. “With Xten softphones and Multi-Tech MultiVOIP Gateways, deploying SIP-based VoIP networks for SMEs and SOHO businesses is a no-brainer.”

Attaching MultiVOIP to an IP-based PBX creates an interconnect to the PSTN that allows mobile users to use the Xten Softphone to make toll-free telephone calls from anywhere in the world into their corporate office, or use their IP PBX to make calls out of their local exchange. Conversely, callers can come from a local exchange into the PBX and out to the Xten software via the MultiVOIP gateway.

“SIP is gaining a lot of momentum in the industry,” explains Chip Harleman, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Multi-Tech Systems. “Our alliance with Xten opens the door for SIP-based, mobile, Voice over IP applications. In fact, we advocate multi-vendor SIP implementations. We believe that interoperability benefits the entire industry and ultimately our mutual customers.”

The MultiVOIP family is available in analog and digital models ranging from one to 60 ports. MultiVOIP gateways connect directly to phones, fax machines, key systems, PSTN lines or a PBX to provide real-time, toll-quality voice connections to any office on a VOIP network. It is designed to help maximize investments already made in the existing data and voice network infrastructure and is SIP (RFC 3261) compliant.

Xten’s X-PRO softphones are business-grade IP Telephony solutions, delivering the quality of service and features found in business-class telephones including conferencing and multi-proxy. Xten also has a feature-rich FREE softphone dubbed X-Lite which does not include some of X-PRO’s premimum features but still provides the same level of call quality. Xten’s softphones are fully RFC3261 (SIP), RTP/RTCP (RFC 1889) and SDP (RFC 3264) compliant. They are available for Windows (Windows 98SE/ME/NT 4/2000/XP/CE), Mac OS X and LindowsOS operating systems.

About Multi-Tech

An ISO 9001:2000 certified global manufacturer of award-winning Internet, remote access, and telephony products, Multi-Tech Systems provides end-to-end solutions for small to medium-sized businesses. Multi-Tech’s products are available through a worldwide network of business partners (distributors, resellers, system integrators, ISPs, and ISVs), or in embedded solutions from OEMs.

Privately held, Multi-Tech Systems has over 61 U.S. patents and numerous international patents. The company’s intellectual property portfolio includes patents covering transmission of multiplexed voice, data and video packets used in technologies such as Internet telephony, PC telephony, voice over IP or frame relay, and DSVD modems. For additional information, contact Multi-Tech at 800/328-9717 or 763/785-3500, via fax at 763/785-9874 or browse the company’s World Wide Web home page at www.multitech.com

About Xten® Networks, Inc.

Xten is a provider of award-winning, high-quality, carrier-grade SIP-based VoIP software and softphones. Xten’s goal is to be the primary choice in SIP-based client-side audio and video IP communications software for Telecoms, Cable Providers and Internet Telephony Service Providers and OEMs. Those who are interested in Xten products should visit sales.xten.com On the Web: www.xten.com

For more information, please contact:

Multi-Tech Systems, Inc.
Paul Kraska
763-785-3500
pkraska@multitech.com

Xten Networks, Inc.
Mark Bruk, CEO
408.876.4344
mark@xten.com

OTTAWA, June 18 /CNW Telbec/ – The Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) should refrain from regulating prices for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services offered by Canada’s established
phone companies, according to a joint submission being filed today by Aliant,
Bell Canada, SaskTel and Télébec.

“What we are opposed to are rules that stand in the way of delivering
competitively-priced services to customers” said Lawson Hunter, Executive Vice
President, Bell Canada Enterprises. “However, we do support social regulation
such as access to 9-1-1 service and rights to privacy rules to the extent that
these protect customers and the public interest.”

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Michael Robertson of SIPphone.com had some cool news on Thursday…

Last month history was made. On May 17, Lufthansa and Boeing successfully launched the first commercial flight with WiFi broadband service, Connexion.

There were many “firsts” on that flight, but perhaps the most influential one was the first SIP phone call from 21,000 feet over Bahrain. That call was made by 3Com’s Global Strategic Webmaster, Klaus Schultz, to a colleague around the globe in San Jose using his laptop, XTen’s softphone and his SIPphone.com account.

Today, Lufthansa offers Connexion broadband WiFi service on only one of their flights, but in the coming months and years, it will be come routine to access the Internet from 35,000 feet. So soon we will all be making free calls to our friends, family and colleagues. Let me tell you, I could have really used this on my recent 18 hour flight from Los Angeles to Singapore, the longest commercial flight in the world.

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COMMENTARY–Will May 19, 2004, be a date that lives in infamy for proponents of VoIP? Two ominous developments took place on that day. The New York Public Service Commission declared Vonage to be a regulated telephone company. Meanwhile, several key companies pulled out of the inter-carrier compensation forum (ICF) that is attempting to negotiate a replacement for the outmoded access-charge regime. That brought the effort to the brink of collapse. These seemingly unrelated events illustrate the failings of the Federal Communications Commission’s current piecemeal approach to VoIP, or voice over Internet Protocol. Though no one in Washington seems to want to make VoIP subject to legacy telecommunications regulations, we may be drifting in exactly that direction.

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Cable & Wireless is widening its range of corporate Internet telephony products by launching a voice over IP (VoIP) service for UK businesses.

It will be called Cable & Wireless IP Voice and the company says it will offer a better quality of service than is possible with VoIP connections that run over the public Internet. Cable & Wireless said the service is aimed at businesses that have operations at multiple sites and use separate private networks for voice and data at present, and who want to merge their traffic onto a single IP-based network.

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Jeff Pulver’s Free World Dialup VoIP service [http://www.freeworlddialup.com] is growing a rapid rate, which is great to see. I thought the readers would like to know that Xten represents over 138,000 users in that community. I think that is more than half but I am not sure. Here is a geographical representation of those users which was created today. Each red dot could represent thousands of users. The total user count of the X-Lite / FWD auto-configured software was 138,907 at 11:00 AM today. The daily average of registrations of Xten X-Lite softphones on the FWD service exceeds 500.

Imagine what will happen when peerSee goes live! I believe these numbers will seem like peanuts in short order.