Bank of America Begins Deployment of Cisco VoIP Phones
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CHARLOTTE - Bank of America is deploying some 180,000 Cisco Internet Protocol-based telephones across its 5,800 branches and enterprise centers in a major deployment of Voice over IP technology from Cisco.
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With its Internet-based phone service well established, AT&T (NYSE: T) now is  focusing on establishing common ground among the broad array of technology providers that help the operator deliver VoIP to businesses and consumers.
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Troubled VoIP service provider Vonage is rolling out new products and services at the Consumer Electronics Show in a bid to reverse its downward spiral.Intellectual property lawsuits brought by Nortel, Verizon, Sprint, and AT&amp;T have distracted Vonage for the past year. During that time, customer acquisition slowed, and defections grew to 3 percent in the third quarter last year.But Vonage says it is ready to turn a corner. The suits were a weapon that the phone companies used to defend their businesses in the face of competition from Vonage, said Jeffrey Citron, chairman, chief strategist and interim CEO at Vonage. &quot;It was a successful strategy. It distracted us and slowed us down,&quot; he said. &quot;Instead of rolling out MyVonage six months ago, we were dealing with workarounds.&quot; MyVonage is the name of a new campaign at the company to introduce a host of services geared toward customer lifestyles.While the lawsuits were ongoing, the company was developing workaround technology that would allow its business to move forward without infringing on the relevant patents. Vonage has now settled all four major lawsuits against it.That has left Vonage free to spend more time focusing on its business, said Citron. It hired new engineers who designed a router, the first time Vonage will sell its own router rather than one from Cisco or Motorola.The router has an unusual feature: a screen. It displays information about problems that the modem might have in plain language. For instance, rather than showing a flashing light like most routers, this one displays words telling users that the Ethernet cable is unplugged.New customers will be able to buy the V-Portal router online starting Wednesday for $9.99 after rebates.In addition to the new router, Vonage is beginning to roll out many new features that it is showcasing at alpha.vonage.com. For instance, customers can now use voice-activated dialing, simply speaking a name to place a call. Customers can also send a voice message to anyone via e-mail. The message arrives as an attached audio file.Call blast is a new feature that lets customers send out a voice mail simultaneously to a group of people. Citron anticipates that will be useful when he&#39;s in charge of calling 15 kids who go to school with his kids to tell them there is a snow day.&quot;We expect to roll out a new capability every month or two,&quot; Citron said.Vonage also plans to offer another service that lets users access the voice recognition system from any phone to make a call through Vonage. The company is also testing software that would let customers make Vonage calls via software on their laptops.Many of these services are free to Vonage customers.Citron said that the future for Vonage will be brighter. Despite continued high churn, last quarter it had a gain of 77,000 customers, which he says isn&#39;t as good as it should be. The company has worked to cut costs, and improvements in customer service should help decrease customer losses, he said.In the meantime, speculation continues to circle that the payouts Vonage made to settle the lawsuits will cripple it. But Citron was confident that the company&#39;s troubles are behind it.
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InfoWorld - Microsoft will release a public beta of new VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) server software by the end of this month.The software smoothly integrates with legacy phone networks and its Office application suite, the company said.
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BEDMINSTER, NJ - In a move its IP voice services forward, AT&amp;T announced Tuesday (Sept. 21) that is has formed an Innovation and Interoperability Program to foster development of applications and systems for its voice-over-IP (VoIP) network.
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AccessLine Communications, a leading provider of hosted VoIP (Voice over  Internet Protocol) services, today announced that its SmartVoice Service  for business now offers U.S.-based customers the ability to utilize  local phone numbers in Great Britain.
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SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Boingo Wireless and Vonage Holdings Corp., the leading broadband telephony provider in North America, today announced a relationship that teams two industry innovators in an effort
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Software maker is ready with a test version of its server software for running business phone systems.
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InfoWorld - Aiming to let enterprises do more with their IP (Internet Protocol) telephony systems and keep them available when a network goes down, Avaya introduced new software, phones, and a gateway at this week&#39;s VoiceCon Spring conference.
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Verizon Communications ran thousands of miles of cable to build a VoIP network in Madison Square Garden, while Cisco supplied the networking equipment, IBM donated PCs and servers, and Microsoft provided desktop and systems software.
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Vonage and Cisco's Linksys have a new bundle: an 802.11g router and any of three Vonage plans.
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Internet hardware giant Cisco Systems is said to be preparing to launch a new family of routers that can manage both voice and data applications.
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BellSouth today announced it will use the routers that Cisco launched today to allow small and medium businesses and enterprise branches to receive cost-effective access to VoIP, call and content management, security and other applications previously
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Cisco is rolling out today a router, switch, and enhancements for branch-office networking.
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Cisco Systems Inc.'s Linksys division is set to enter the consumer VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) space on Tuesday through a deal with Vonage Holdings Corp. to provide customer equipment for that company's Internet-based telephone service.
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Bank of America Corp. this week announced plans for a corporate-wide IP telephony rollout that will eventually put an IP phone on every BoA employeeâs desktop -- about 180,000 phones total.
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Cisco(R) (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced that Wachovia Corporation (NYSE: WB), the parent company of the nation's fourth-largest bank and third-largest brokerage firm, has completed its first deployment of Cisco TelePresence.