Martin Group will leverage the acquired technology in combination with OASIS, Martin Group’s Operation Support System, and OMNIA™, its Business Support System, as the foundation for an enhanced services platform enabling communications providers to provide next gen products and services. Subject to closing of the transaction, asset ownership will transfer from CopperCom Acquisition Corp. to Martin Group and Martin Group will begin providing ongoing product support and maintenance in accordance with the contracts of existing SwitchMaxx and VoiceMaxx customers. Closing is anticipated by the end of August 2008.

RingCentral combines a toll-free or local number with advanced call management, PBX, voicemail and Internet fax, enabling customers to set up multiple extensions with voicemail, automatically screen, forward and place calls, allow their customers to click-to-call directly from their website, view call logs for sales leads, send and receive faxes, and receive message alerts.

"The RingCentral hosted business phone system compliments a small business's voice services by providing a centralized phone and Internet fax solution for mobile and distributed employees," says Barbara Branaman, executive vice president of product and marketing for Concentric. "With RingCentral, we now offer a comprehensive suite of affordable small business services including everything a small business needs to create a big business presence on the web and on the phone."

Existing Concentric customers can try the RingCentral service for free for the first 30 days.

Vonage Pro includes the next-generation Vonage SoftPhone client, called Vonage Companion, which syncs a user's home phone to his computer, allowing users to make and receive calls as if at home.

Vonage Pro offers 25 calling features, including caller ID, call waiting, call blocking, conference calling, call recording, voice mail and personalized ring tones.

Vonage Pro is part of the company's MyVonage initiative, which was unveiled in January to create products and services based on customer requests.

Still, looking simply at reported "voice" circuits in use, there are 134.5 million "incumbent" local exchange carrier switched access lines in service and 28.7 million "CLEC" switched access lines in operation, according to the latest Federal Communications Commission data.

There also are 238.2 million mobile telephony service subscriptions at the end of June 2007.

At a high level, wireless represents 59 percent of all voice "lines" in service.

CLECs reported 28.7 million (or 17.6 percent) of the approximately 163.2 million nationwide end-user switched access lines in service at the end of June 2007, compared to 28.6 million (or 17.1 percent) of the 167.5 million lines reported six months earlier.

About 7.7 million end-user switched access lines were provided by CLECs over coaxial

cable (cable operator) connections. These lines represent about 70 percent of the 11 million end-user switched access lines that CLECs reported providing over their own local loop facilities, about 27 percent of all end-user switched access lines that CLECs reported.

Cable lines also represented about 64 percent of CLEC lines to residential end users, about five percent of total end-user switched access lines, and about eight percent of total residential switched access lines.

Keep in mind that some cable operations are owned by telephone companies as well, further muddying the waters.

VoX's VoIP services will initially be deployed by CSP's operating companies covering portions of Arizona, Maryland and Florida. When completed, CSP's broadband network, using the latest WiMAX and wireless technologies, will offer data and voice capabilities to geographic areas encompassing over one half million homes and businesses, many of which have limited or no available broadband access.

"We have secured or are in the process of closing over $34 million in financing to help fund our effort to provide broadband and voice services to underserved rural markets in the United States," said Tom Della Rocco, Senior Vice President of Networks for Charles Street Partners. "We tested and compared VoX's VoIP services against the competition and concluded that VOX is the best wholesale VoIP provider in the industry in terms of voice quality, provisioning and overall value."

Following the acquisition of Globalcom, First Communications will have pro forma revenues of $218 million EDITBA of $31.5 million for the year ended Dec. 31, 2007.

"As IP telephony vendors reach the saturation point with the first deployments of IP in larger businesses, we believe the SMB voice market is poised to see significant new product introductions over the next five years," said Alan Weckel, Senior Analyst at Dell'Oro Group. "This renewed focus on SMBs will initially lead to further fragmentation of the market landscape, both of the vendors and of the solutions offered. Despite significant consolidation amongst vendors in the SMB space, new entrants over the past three years have actually increased the number of vendors offering SMB solutions," Weckel added.

Dell'Oro Group 5-Year Forecast Report offers a complete overview of the IP Telephony Enterprise industry with tables covering manufacturers' revenue, average selling prices, line (analog/digital and IP) shipments for IP PBX, Hybrid IP/TDM PBX, traditional PBX, traditional key systems, and IP telephones. For more information, contact Emily Kendall at +1.650.622.9400 x223 or via email at Emily@DellOro.com.

In addition to voice plans, wholesale clients can offer text-messaging plans with a choice of designated message allowances per month to end-users that have also purchased wireless voice service. Optional international messaging and premium messaging packages are each available at an additional monthly charge.

Lightyear Network Solutions LLC is the first VPS client.

The Verizon Wholesale Mobility Solutions suite is comprised of two wireless service offerings: Verizon Wholesale Mobile Voice and Verizon Wholesale Mobile Broadband.

Verizon Wholesale Mobile Voice offers wireless calling plans with a choice of designated minutes of use allowances per month. Each plan includes Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, Three-Way Calling, No Answer/Busy Transfer, Caller ID and Basic Voice Mail at no additional monthly fee. Premium features, like Enhanced Voice Mail, monthly mobile-to-mobile minutes and directory assistance, are each available at an additional monthly charge.

Verizon Wholesale Mobile Broadband offers high-speed wireless Internet access via laptop computers with a choice of designated packet data transport MB allowances per month. This product can be sold as either a stand-alone service or as an addition to a voice calling plan. In addition to wireless network services, Verizon Wholesale Mobility Solutions provides wholesale clients with tools that enable them to become one-stop wireline and wireless services providers.

"This agreement helps Vonage to ensure that customers have the best possible Internet experience," said Louis Mamakos, Vonage Chief Technology Officer. "Although we're competitors with Comcast, this understanding helps our two companies work together to balance the needs of network management with consumers' ability to freely access the services, applications and content of their choice."

"This collaboration with Vonage, and our outreach to many key participants in the Internet community, demonstrate that we are committed to provide network management solutions that benefit consumers and competition," said Tony Werner, Comcast Chief Technology Officer.

This is the latest in a series of announcements related to Comcast's network management practices that demonstrate the company's commitment to ensure that its customers' ability to use any application or access any content they choose while avoiding network congestion situations that could affect the consumer experience. In March, Comcast announced it would move to a protocol-agnostic network management approach by the end of 2008, and tests on this approach have already begun. Comcast has announced other collaborations with BitTorrent, Inc. and Pando Networks, as well as participation in the P4P Working Group organized by the Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA). Comcast has also participated in the IETF Workshop on P2P Infrastructure, and will continue to collaborate in the IETF with other ISPs, P2P providers, and others on technologies related to network management and P2P application development.

Microsoft also has certified New Global Telecom, which now is accepting customer orders for NGT Digital Voice for Microsoft Response Point. In April, NGT became the first certified, Microsoft recommended service provider offering industry-standard SIP (session initiation protocol) phone services that works seamlessly with Response Point.

"This is a landmark event. It brings together the proud heritage of both Access Integrated Networks and Birch Telecom," said Vincent Oddo, president and CEO of Birch Communications. "Over the last 10 years, both companies have each built reputations for delivering great service with a very strong commitment to customer satisfaction. It is on these solid foundations that we are now building the new company with a new brand identity."

Birch Communications delivers voice and internet services to small and medium businesses and residential customers in 26 states. The company builds market share by offering services for rates below its larger telecom competitors and with a more personal approach to customer service. Capitalizing on the reputation for excellent customer service, Birch Communications also announces its new tagline, "At Your Service."

"Along with our new name and logo, we are pleased to unveil a tagline that represents the true market character of our company - 'At Your Service,'" said Allan Samson, chief sales and marketing officer for Birch. "Customers select Birch Communications because of the affordability of our offerings. Customers stay with Birch Communications because of the service experience that each and every Birch employee brings to meeting the needs of our customers. ‘At Your Service’ reflects both the internal mission statement and external attributes that have made the company the compelling alternative for thousands of customers over the bureaucratic telecom giants."

The solution uses an integrated access device to connect to analog phone or IP ports, says Huw Rees, 8x8 VP. The company introduced the solution because "some of our customers and prospects have some legacy equipment to support, and want the cost savings if not the new features," says Rees.
The Virtual Trunking service requires a minimum of three voice lines and costs $25 a line each month, including 500 voice minutes of use for each line. Minutes used above the included amount cost 3.5 cents each.

The service requires installation of an IAD as well as a local network survey. On a one-year contract, the $1,500 install cost (for the equipment and labor) comes with a $500 rebate. Contracts of two years come with a $1,000 rebate.

"Many businesses are motivated to migrate to VoIP phone service to take advantage of cost and performance efficiencies, but are reluctant to do so because they already own or are leasing an on-premise business phone system," says Rees.

Virtual Trunking allows those customers to retain their phone equipment if desired, while obtaining the lower-cost IP-based voice access services 8x8 provides.

"The Packet8 Virtual Trunking solution is broadband agnostic and will operate over any high speed network connection from any location worldwide," says Rees.

"We believe that two-thirds of all U.S. businesses will have some form of VoIP phone service by 2011, whether it’s a hosted PBX service, an IP-PBX switch or a hybrid solution," says David Lemelin, In-Stat senior research analyst .

8x8 also has added domestic regional sales personnel who will be building a network of telecommunications resellers that sell into the SME channel.

Packet8 Virtual Trunking offers dial tone, toll-free number service, direct dialing, T1/PRI termination, analog (FXS) termination, Enhanced 9-1-1 (E911) support, Caller ID/CNAM, national directory listing and online billing and account management.

350 East Cermak is the primary communications interconnection building in Chicago. This expansion highlights the continuing strong demand Telx is seeing from companies across various vertical markets, including both the financial sector and the traditional service provider sectors. Also, network demand is increasing due to the growth of communications traffic between the New York and Chicago markets.

In Gartner Research's 2007 report Colocation Prices in U.S. Internet Data Centers Continue to Increase Rapidly, Lydia Leong, a Senior Analyst, found that Chicago is one of the tightest markets for colocation. This data correlates with similar research by TeleGeography, whose survey findings indicate that [due to high demand] Chicago is the second most expensive city for colocation [space and power] services only after New York.

"350 East Cermak in Chicago is where you meet most of the global networks. Anyone that has their own network facilities, has space in the building either in the Meet Me Room or the building itself," stated Shane Hampton, vice president, and market development for Business Only Broadband. "Telx provides a fundamental service in the Chicago market offering infrastructure to facilitate cross-connections to an array of global networks and end users."

"At Telx, we see Interconnection and colocation demand accelerating as data networking and IP traffic grows," stated Eric Shepcaro, Telx CEO and Chairman. "This is driven by the growing demand for applications like High Definition [HD] video, Software as a Service [SaaS] and social networking."

The expansion space at 350 East Cermak in Chicago is ready for immediate occupancy.

"RGTS is excited to now offer leading-performance/carrier-grade Ethernet services backed by dedicated customer service and responsive operations capabilities – a unique combination that helps clients benefit from managed connectivity that enable advanced communications applications and increased business efficiency," says John Tarduno, President and CEO of RGTS. "The transition from SONET to Ethernet will save clients money on both equipment and man power as it is easier to use. The speed is ideal for data applications and RGTS is proud to be offering it."

The Ethernet service is made possible by Accedian Networks’ ESAP solution, which allows RGTS to proactively monitor end-to-end, per-application performance. This ensures that committed bandwidth, availability, packet delay and jitter meet each customer’s unique requirements. The solution also provides accelerated service provisioning, remote troubleshooting and carrier-grade operations, administration and maintenance functionality to ensure services are efficiently deployed and managed.

"Best-in-Class companies identified by recent Aberdeen research are more than twice as likely as others to manage deployed service performance proactively, and 1.5 times as likely to monitor QoS metrics. Such efforts help to assure SLA compliance, and improve overall performance of critical applications," said Michael Dortch, senior analyst at Aberdeen Group and author of the recent study, "Performance in a Service-Oriented Architecture World."

Performance monitoring is increasingly critical to the effective monitoring, management, and optimization of IT and communications resources. Accedian execs contend that by leveraging Accedian Networks’ ESAP solution, RGTS will be well-positioned to deliver services that meet or exceed their clients’ QoS requirements.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (www.enterprisecommunications.frost.com) North American Enterprise Telephony System Markets, finds that total telephony market earned revenues of over $3.19 billion in 2007 and estimates this to reach $6.2 billion in 2013.

If readers are interested in a virtual brochure, which provides manufacturers, end users, and other industry participants with an overview of the North American enterprise telephony system markets, then send an e-mail to Mireya Castilla, Corporate Communications, at mireya.castilla@frost.com, with your full name, company name, title, telephone number, company e-mail address, company website, city, state and country. Upon receipt of the above information, an overview will be sent to you by e-mail.

"IP telephony is entering into the maturity phase with technology stabilizing and vendors continuing to increase reliability and redundancy," notes Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Krithi Rao. "2007 marks the juncture where most early adopters have deployed IP telephony in parts of the enterprise and are evaluating strategies to embark on the optimum migration path for the rest of the enterprise."

The telephony market is experiencing the impact of customers moving away from bottom-line objectives of cost savings to top-line objectives of productivity and efficiency. The primary factor driving growth continues to be the impending end-of-life stature of legacy systems combined with cost savings associated with converging two disparate networks. However, the potential to better deploy end-user productivity applications such as unified messaging, conferencing, and IP phone-based applications on IP telephony systems and better support telecommuters and a mobile workforce is quickly becoming a key driver as well.

However, with telephony vendors' marketing messages changing from promoting IP telephony for cost savings to focusing on its ability to support advanced applications, organizations are taking a step back to evaluate their "unified communications." This has the potential to lead to a delay in a full-blown migration of their telephony infrastructure.

"With a fairly saturated installed base of telephony systems, most of the growth has to come from the IP PBX market, offsetting the decline in the time division multiplexing (TDM) telephony market," says Rao. "A large amount of sunken investment in legacy TDM infrastructure and customer concerns about choosing the right unified communications solution that includes IP telephony and the appropriate vendor could cause some delay in a full-blown migration to IP."

As enterprise communication infrastructure moves to software-based models and vendors gain less and less from core telephony solutions, vendors must turn to services and applications to stay competitive in the marketplace. However, the extent to which they can gain revenue from applications and services will depend on how they evolve their communications platform architecture and their ability to become an end-to-end solution provider for the customer.

Digium created and is the driving force behind the open source Asterisk telephony project and Switchvox is the most widely used IP PBX based on Asterisk. Last year, Digium acquired Switchvox and has integrated the two companies' offerings to provide customers with a wide range of options for benefitting from the power, flexibility and feature set enabled by Asterisk. By implementing Switchvox software on Digium appliances, customers now have the ease of use and rich feature set of Switchvox, plus the reliability and convenience of appliances, say execs with Digium. The Digium Switchvox appliance family provides options for businesses with up to 400 users, plus an easy upgrade path for growing companies, a money-back guarantee, and subscriptions for professional support and maintenance.

"The integration of Switchvox into Digium has moved ahead quickly, and the AA300 with SMB 3.5 software is the latest result of our continuing progress," said Joshua Stephens, Digium's general manager, San Diego operations. "Customers and our channel partners are benefitting from the rapid delivery of Switchvox on appliances that can be up and running supporting calls just about as soon as they come out of the box and that can be easily upgraded as customers need more features or add users. The result of all our work is more options for customers that let them get rid of expensive phone systems, yet keep all the functionality of a PBX designed for the largest businesses."

-        Top-10 Critical Technologies to SIP, Steps to Successful SIP Implementation,

-        Diagnosing & Tools for Troubleshooting SIP Networks with more than 30 Common Problems and Solutions,

-        SIP Technology – Indepth, SIP Security – “Best Practices” – Reality Check 50-Point Comprehensive SIP Security Checklist,

-        SIP Security Architectures,

-        SIP Class of Service & Quality of Service,

-        SIP Applications and Future Outlook,

-        Microsoft's OCS-Office Communications Server "Game Plan" with IM-Instant Messaging, Web conferencing, desktop video conferencing, media gateways and telephony, and other topics.

For complete details, course outline, go to: http://www.techtionary.com/sip/roadshow/

 “This intensive executive briefing is vital to all organizations evaluating SIP/VOIP solutions and a must-attend for an organization using Microsoft platforms,” noted Tom Cross - CEO TECHtionary.com. 

The dates for the courses are:

-        June 26-27 - Denver - Westin Westminster

-        July 24-25 - San Francisco - Downtown Courtyard

-        August 21-22 - Denver - Westin Westminster

-        September 25-26 - Orlando – Courtyard

-        October 16-17 - San Francisco - Downtown Courtyard

-        November 13-14 - Orlando – Courtyard

-        Denver 11-12 - Denver - Westin Westminster

For pricing and other options, go to: http://www.techtionary.com/sip/roadshow/

Course is $495 per person, $395 per person for SIP Forum-Full members and MS Channel Partners.  Group discounts and other options are available. The course is free registered channel partners - terms and conditions apply - go here for details http://www.techtionary.com/techu/.  This course is available for on-site delivery, online or via Web seminar.

The AIX is an established open exchange platform already colocated with Telx at 56 Marietta Street in Atlanta, where Telx owns the building and operates interconnection facilities. This acquisition provides Telx with an Internet Exchange platform that already has over 60 partcipants. Telx is committed to investing in growth and continuing improvement of service levels.

"This is an exciting opportunity for customers on the AIX," stated Michael Lucking, founder of the AIX. "Telx’s team has illustrated the dedication and enthusiasm necessary to effectively manage an IP Peering Exchange."

In addition, the company has also launched the Telx Internet Exchange (TIE) in Phoenix, AZ, solidifying the company’s stake in the IP arena. In Phoenix, Telx’s facility located at 120 East Van Buren Street (www.telx.com/facilities.php) has long been the premier carrier hotel facility in that market. With growing demand from companies requiring colocation and interconnections it quickly became evident that there was a gap in providing quality neutral Internet Exchange services in Phoenix. Telx enters the Phoenix market to offer quality peering services that leverage the strength of its interconnection community, according to the company. The Phoenix TIE is based on the Force 10 platform.

According to the Government Information Technology Agency (www.gita.state.az.us) of Arizona, "Arizona led the nation with a population growth rate of 3.6 percent." This kind of growth is fueling the Internet traffic in the Southwest region.

"The Telx Internet Exchange requires an uncompromising level of network reliability, scalability and manageability to meet the demanding requirements of its rapidly growing customer base," said Stephen Garrison, Vice President of Marketing at Force 10 Networks. "By leveraging the high performance architecture of Force10’s Ethernet switch, Telx can maintain its Phoenix exchange point as a strategic asset that its customers can rely on for their businesses."

"Every Metro needs at least one strong Internet Exchange," commented Paul Vixie Co-founder of the Internet Systems Consortium (www.isc.org/index.pl). "I am glad to see Telx open one in Phoenix."

"Telx is listening and responding to the market," announced Eric Shepcaro, CEO and Chairman of Telx. "The acquisition of the AIX and deployment of the TIE service in Phoenix marks an exciting new direction for the company. Our ability to invest in the AIX and play a significant role in the Phoenix and Southwest market expansion is truly an exciting venture. This allows companies in these respective markets to realize the benefits of a quality network-neutral provider."

The Atlanta and Phoenix TIE platforms will be monitored 24x7 and are ready to accept Ethernet connections immediately. Furthermore, Telx customers in Atlanta and Phoenix now have the ability to purchase one-stop-shopping solutions that includes space, power and interconnectivity between networks as well as interconnectivity to the TIE platforms.

System Suite Essentials is designed to ensure high-speed PC performance and system reliability that today’s broadband subscribers expect from their computers.

“PC users have been flocking to broadband in order to make online music, video, and gaming more enjoyable,” said Theodore May, Synacor Vice President of Content and Value Added Services. “These can also magnify PC performance problems that undermine the consumer online experience. Adding System Suite Essentials will enable customers to optimize their own experience.” 

Avanquest’s System Suite Essentials enables PC users to speed up their operating system, troubleshoot hardware problems and maintain “like-new” performance. 

“System Suite Essentials is built on our years of experience helping PC users troubleshoot the system problems that plague so many PCs today and return their systems to top performance,” says Julie Shevlin, Vice President, Avanquest’s Denver-based OEM division. “We’ve long been committed to helping users get the most out of their PCs and their time online, and we look forward to working with Synacor and their broadband provider customers to ensure their end-customers have the best experience possible.”

Compatible with Windows Vista, XP and 2000 editions, System Suite Essentials performs a wide range of essential PC maintenance functions including hard drive tune-up, management of Windows start-up, recovery of lost data, registry optimization and hardware diagnoses.

The CBX is an invitation only industry and networking event exclusively for Telx customers and partners who are the leading global networking and IT executives. As a sponsor of the CBX event, Calient has the opportunity to show the greater telecommunications market their technology by offering demonstrations and field trials to attendees.

Calient's FiberConnect is a proven solution for carrier hotels, network demarcation points, and points of presence (POPs). Initially deployed in extreme service-critical transoceanic cable landing sites, the DiamondWave has revolutionized remote monitoring, testing and diagnostic capabilities—in some cases permitting "lights out" unmanned operations at remote offices. Deployed in centers with on-site personnel, the system gives early warning of performance issues and with its automated database and monitoring capability allows precise isolation of faults, which speeds response time.

"The FiberConnect Fiber Optic Cross-connect System technology greatly improves the use and value of network test equipment at an interconnect facility such as Telx’s," commented Daniel L. Scharre, CEO of Calient. "At the CBX, we will demonstrate how our optical switch enhances test equipment such as protocol analyzers, OTDRs, packet analyzers, load testers, multicast inspectors, and IP video testers. Our equipment identifies the root cause of the fiber problem, isolating it in real time, reducing operating costs and improving both service indices and return on capital of network test equipment."

"Calient’s technology benefits network operators by allowing them to remotely monitor testing equipment connected directly into the FiberConnect technology. This permits remote testing, diagnostics and fault isolation," added Rose Klimovich, vice president of product development for Telx. "By partnering with technology innovators like Calient, we are opening up opportunities for our interconnection customers to realize operating efficiencies from new technologies."

This whitepaper discusses the many elements required to successfully deploy VoIP in an enterprise network, and discusses how changing any one of these can create vulnerabilities in a number of other areas. "Just as you can’t walk far with a stone in your shoe, even just one minor setback can seriously impact the entire deployment," said Chuck Rutledge, Vice President of Marketing for Quintum.

VoIP has gained a large toehold in network deployments, often deployed in phases so as not to disrupt the organization and everyday operations. However, these heterogeneous networks that have evolved over time often develop a new set of problems, and how these are addressed can affect the entire VoIP migration. Some pain points can be as basic as how to manage legacy telephony like analog phones or fax machines, or the survivability of remote-office telephony should the main IP PBX server fail. Others can be more complicated, such as how to deal with applications that now run on the same networks as VoIP, or how to assure that SIP in one network is interoperable with SIP in others.

"These kinds of problems are the stones in your shoe that can add complexities to any VoIP deployment. This paper addresses how to remove those stones," said Rutledge. One example solution is the Unified Communications Proxy, which offers ‘any to any’ connectivity for intelligent TDM and/or SIP switching. This simplifies the deployment of new VoIP applications and makes for easy integration with existing voice network elements, including legacy TDM PBXs, IP-PBXs, analog phones, SIP endpoints, and the PSTN. Also, the Tenor comes in a broad range of port sizes and configurations, providing a solution for enterprises both large and small.

Another example is remote survivability. Quintum Tenor products offer the ability to keep the branch office telephony network operational when the connection with the central IP telephony server is lost. PSTN connectivity provides an ‘off ramp’ for communication if the IP connection fails.

These sorts of solutions can help enterprises minimize total cost of ownership, lessen the risks associated with deploying new technologies in established networks, and ensure that service levels are not compromised.

"This white paper addresses challenges faced by enterprise IT departments when deploying VoIP as a phased approach in existing voice networks," states Rutledge. "Quintum published this whitepaper to help clarify and simplify these issues, and to provide answers on how to keep a VoIP migration project moving forward and accomplish the project’s objectives without maxing out critical resources."

The whitepaper is available as a pdf on Quintum’s website at: www.quintum.com/resources/white_papers.html