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Today when organizations are distributed at various locations, getting everyone together is a bit difficult at times. For instance, in case of most of the organizations, sometimes half of the team of a company would be based somewhere in the US, and half in some other part of the world. In such cases, web conferencing is a savior! Web conferencing technology is now a mainstream medium through which individuals or groups can meet face-to-face in real time to interact.

Web conferencing technology supports sharing of slides (PDF and PPT), video, whiteboard, chat, voice using Asterisk PBX, and desktops.

Web Conferencing features include the following:
• Asterisk based web conferencing allows instantaneous conference calling where the user can select any group of contacts, or any e-mail or calendar appointment and automatically initiate a conference call to all the recipients
• Web conferencing allows to join the Asterisk VOIP based voice conference from within the client using a built-in SIP phone
• Hosted Asterisk based web conferencing allows chat with other users including private chat
• Web conferencing facilitates to view the presenter’s slides and cursor
• It helps share a video stream (webcam) with other participants
• Web conferencing also facilitates uploading of slides (PDF or any office document supported by Open Office)
• In web conferencing, the presenter can mute or eject listeners from the voice conference. In web conferencing, the presenter can share their desktop (yes, even on Linux).

Also, don’t forget to enjoy the benefits of the best application hosting solutions, such as hosted VOIP PBX, Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, etc., which has become the preferred way for companies to implement business software.

An internet communications company, Raketu, introduced their new web application, which is specifically made for the
Blackberry users of the BlackBerry Curve, 8800 and Pearl product series. On top of its numerous features, this new web application Raketu will enable users to make free calls and send SMS text messages worldwide.

“With over twelve million users of the BlackBerry worldwide, the introduction of our Raketu BlackBerry Application marks our definitive entry into the mobile business market,” said Greg Parker, president and CEO of Raketu, in a recent press release. “For businesses whose employees initiate a significant number of international calls from their BlackBerry mobile devices, Raketu’s BlackBerry Application is a great way to reduce monthly calling costs.”

Some regular lines with a monthly fixed payment have separate charges for other features. Additional payment is needed to have unlimited long distance. Others don’t come with free voicemail. Caller id, call waiting and call forwarding have different charges as well. This depends on the plan that is subscribed.

VoIP have a fixed monthly charge which includes the features. And because it will be using your internet, it does not have the line rental. Local and long distance are both unlimited. Some providers can give you unlimited call to Canada. There are a variety of plans to choose from.

Whichvoip.com can give you more information on the service and has a breakdown of the comparison.

Source: whichvoip.com

A few of the basic features are caller id, voicemail, call waiting, 3 way calling. Just about the same as the regular phone line.
The advance features are the best such as PC to Phone. This allows you to use your computer in making calls instead of your phone. You need special software for the feature.

Another one is that you can travel with it globally. You have the convenience of bringing it anywhere. You can bring the VoIP set up and have the high speed internet. You’ll be able to use the service. Have the convenience of calling your friends and family at home without the roaming charges and they can call you back as a local call. It does beat the service of the regular phone.

As far as making emergency calls to 911, who would ever consider using VoIP to make them. While we cannot really tell when real emergencies would emerge, there are various reactions and advisories regarding the use of VoIP and one of them is the delays in messaging.

Logically, you would think VoIP calls are faster but this is one case where VoIP just didn’t get the job done. So while you are fascinated by VoIP technology, there are some ifs and buts that have to be addressed at this point.

Late last month, a Calgary family phoned 911 using their VoIP provider when their toddler, Elijah Luck, began having seizures. But they were unknowingly transferred to a call centre in Concord, Ont., where the toddler’s parents had formerly resided.

After roughly 30 minutes of waiting in vain for paramedics, a neighbour phoned 911 using a landline. An ambulance arrived within six minutes and paramedics put the toddler on life support, but Elijah went into cardiac arrest and later died.

Source

Mobile providers are more agreeable to the shift between traditional calls and VoIP based ones allowing their new releases of phones and smart-phones to use and capitalize from the better and faster speeds offered by 3G where it is available. These many providers of mobile services used to implement blockading of VoIP for it ate up most of their data bandwidth but with more people shifting to more powerful phones capable of using it and with them having expanded their data networks, it was only time when people demanded more in terms of VoIP which is not only cheaper but more secure than traditional calls. (more…)

There are many ISP’s who are implementing VoIP blockading which forces users to turn to paid services with respect to their VoIP needs. This is quite common such as in the Arab State of the UAE where they aim to control the use of VoIP and maybe China and many other states which aim the same effect.
Some in the industry have long been calling for better interoperability of these services that would allow providers to share communication in terms of VoIP which till now have their own specific security and programs to maximize their services. you may be able to use VoIP on Yahoo or MSN yet these services may suffer frequent call drops which also makes VoIP quite un-enticing for big businesses. (more…)

As the service becomes widespread the world over, it is getting the attention of scam artists who are using it to scam people when it comes to tolls in metered services. Many people have shifted communications to ISP providers who offer specific VoIP services that are metered based on usage. People have been noticing some discrepancies and like the unauthorized long distance calls with traditional telephony services, they to are being duped for higher rates that they have been using. (more…)

JaJah, one of the bastions of VoIP over mobile devices is working to bring VoIP into the much loved iPhone which is one of the most in demand mobiles on the planet to date. Other mobile makers have jumped into the iPhone look-alike movement which has models of mobiles that either look like the iPhone or functions similar to the market. Most of these devices have the same touch functionality of the iPhone which has eliminated the need for keypads, one of the most used part of a mobile device that is prone to fail.
(more…)

Image Source: sfgov.org

In VoIP service, you can actually dial 911 and be able to access the numb er. But the problem is, there is a limitation amidst its advanced features. When you call through your VoIP, the call operator will not be able to detect what number you are using since you are using VoIp. Therefore it may not be able to track down your exact location. But now there is an improved 911 feature that can deal with that type of problem. It is called E911! What you do is, you register your exact local address to your VoIP service provider so that it encodes it in the database so that when you have an emrgency and you happen to use your VoIP phone, they can still find you if you fail to give your location. Just make sure, first and foremost, that your provider is capable of the enhanced E911 service.