Vonage has announced the launch of Vonage Pro(SM), a first-of-its-kind digital voice offering featuring five innovative components that keep you connected to your home life while on the go, including the ability for customers to use their home phone number virtually anywhere they have access to a high speed Internet connection. Vonage Pro is the next step in the MyVonage(TM) product strategy, which is focused on developing products and services based on the requests of customers who have a wide variety of lifestyles and communication needs.

Vonage Pro features five components that specifically accommodate the lifestyle of “prosumers,” or professional consumers who are comfortable with and understand the benefits of using technology to improve their personal and professional lives.

Announced recently, the $35-a-month service can also automatically transcribe voice mails to e-mail or SMS text. Customers can read, store, search, and respond to voice mail messages on their PCs or smartphones with the service.

Incoming Vonage Pro calls ring at both the customer’s home number and at a companion number chosen by the customer. The Vonage Companion feature is provided by mobile VoIP software company CounterPath. Customers can initiate outgoing calls on both phones simultaneously.

Here are the main features of the service:

• The offering includes a next generation Vonage SoftPhone client, Vonage Companion, that allows the residential or home office user to access their home number from any desktop or laptop PC connected to a high speed Internet connection, enabling them to communicate as if they are at home.
• Incoming calls ring both the customer’s home phone and their Companion, and customers can make outgoing calls on both devices simultaneously — essentially providing a second phone line.
• Vonage Companion also offers customer requested features such as selective call block, conference calling, personalized ringtones and call recording.
• Customers can use their PC’s built-in microphone and speakers or plug in a headset with microphone to make and receive calls.
• Vonage Companion automatically synchronizes with Vonage Contact Center(TM)*
• Home office users will never miss an important call when away on vacation or on a business trip.

Patrick Monaghan, Senior Analyst in Consumer Research at Yankee Group said:

“In a competitive communications landscape, VoIP services need to differentiate themselves on more than price, advanced, flexible features that allow consumers to communicate anywhere will continue to grab market share.”

Haenggi, Vonage chief marketing officer, in a statement said:

“Vonage Pro is the VoIP offering that (consumers) have been asking for to help them stay connected while on the go”.

Seven leading providers of Voice over IP (VOIP) services received 2008 PilotHouse Awards from Nemertes Research, based entirely on ratings from hundreds of IT executives.The annual Nemertes PilotHouse Awards for Unified Communications & Collaboration conferred for the fifth year running deemed ShoreTel to be the Best Overall VOIP Provider.

As part of the Unified Communications and Collaboration research project, Nemertes received 555 ratings of VOIP providers and conducted analysis on VOIP best practices. Providers with the highest average scores in each award category won PilotHouse Awards.

The results showed that ShoreTel had achieved the position of Best Overall VOIP Provider. They achieved this by amassing the most points or votes in an Olympic gymnastics style voting system, with a total score of 4.22 out of a possible maximum high score of 5.0

The breakdown of the scoring showed that their gymnastic-like abilities gave them the edge against the other VOIP athletes in:

• Technology – covering underlying software, platforms, intelligence and standards compliance.
• Product Features – focusing on handset and switch capabilities. Customers apparently like the architecture, built-in redundancy and ability to scale by stacking additional switches.
• Customer Service – focusing on response time, account service, RFP process, and warranty issues. Customers like that ShoreTel listens well to suggestions for upgrades and improvements.
• Value – focusing on “bang for the buck” – customers feel they received value for their expenditure. Customers like that the capital, implementation and operational costs are lower than competitors and that ShoreTel includes its Personal Call Manager desktop client with every license.
• Solution Experience – focusing on the ability to understand business requirements and craft solutions that meet customer needs.
• Ease of Installation and Troubleshooting.
• UC Vision – indicating the best plan and outlook for moving customers from VOIP to a full UC deployment.
• ShoreTel was also one of the top three rated vendors for integration capabilities, which tracks how well products integrate with third-party products and applications.

Robin Gareiss, executive vice president and senior founding partner, Nemertes Research, said, “This research is a must-have for companies evaluating a new VOIP strategy, or reassessing an existing one because it relies on real experiences from real customers.”

Nemertes Research 2008 PilotHouse Awards: VOIP Providers

Best Overall VOIP Providers (all rollout sizes combined)

• ShoreTel, Inc. – Winner
• Siemens Enterprise Communications – Finalist
• 3Com Corporation – Finalist

Top-Tier VOIP Providers – Small Rollouts (<500 Endpoints)

• ShoreTel, Inc.
• Siemens Enterprise Communications
• Cisco Systems, Inc.

Top-Tier VOIP Providers – Midsize Rollouts (500-2,000 Endpoints)

• Cisco Systems, Inc
• Avaya Inc.
• Nortel

Top-Tier VOIP Providers – Large Rollouts (>2,000 Endpoints)

• Nortel
• Alcatel-Lucent
• Cisco Systems, Inc.

Best Overall: VOIP Vertical Solutions

• Avaya Inc.

Best VOIP: Industry-Specific

• Education – Avaya Inc.
• Financial Services – Cisco Systems, Inc.
• Healthcare – Cisco Systems, Inc.
• Manufacturing – Avaya Inc.
• Professional Services – Avaya Inc.
• Retail – Cisco Systems, Inc.
• State/Local Government – Nortel
• Transportation – Siemens Enterprise Communications

Get ready for free VoIP calls on your iPhone. An Israeli company called Fring announced today that it started publicly testing an application for the iPhone called Fring which allows users to make and receive calls using voice over IP technology. In case there’s any sort of misconception here, Fring bypasses any cellphone carrier and relies solely on an Internet connection to make a call.

But here’s the surprise. Fring allows users to make VoIP calls over 3G or EDGE connections, which is a huge deal. With Fring, all customers need would be a data subscription with their carrier (in case of the U.S., AT&T) and begin making those free calls. According to Fring, the application will dynamically adjust audio quality depending on the type of connection it detects.

Source: Tom’s Guide

What will happen to the VoIP industry during a recession?

John Edwards makes his predictions - with arguments for both sides of the story. Here’s an excerpt:

When businesses are pinched by falling revenues, they often respond by scaling back expansion plans, curtailing new initiatives and cutting back on purchases. This could be bad news for VoIP equipment makers — the vendors who build everything from servers to gateways to phones — as more businesses cancel orders, switch to products with less power or fewer features or simply never place orders. Software vendors will also likely feel the pinch as fewer businesses purchase their offerings.

While cold logic dictates that a recession should be universally distressful, there’s also good reason to believe that the VoIP industry may not be hurt as much as many other businesses. VoIP’s big draw is, and always has been, that it is cheaper than traditional telephony. So it stands to reason that as more businesses look to cut their telecom costs, many will decide to make the switch to VoIP. In fact, a recession could turn out to be VoIP’s golden moment, as more enterprises dump costly, aging telephone systems in order to take advantage of VoIP’s cost-saving potential and technological flexibility.