Summary of VoIP News Last Year
Here’s a round-up of a few of the most intriguing, controversial, and thought-provoking VoIP service news and updates of 2011.
FCC approves Connect America Fund
CAF aims to bring broadband services to millions of Americans within the rural areas. The four megabit per second broadband speed requirement for service providers should be able to supply VoIP service to users.
New VoIP Apps for smartphone users
For the mobile professional, a smartphone with VoIP is the most cost-effective strategy to communicate. 2011 saw the release of Android VoIP apps Viber, Skype (version 2), and Bobsled by T-mobile. Meanwhile, AT&T released an iPhone app for international calling via VoIP. Fring iPhone and Android updates also made group video for up to four people possible.
More crimes witnessed through video conferencing
Last April 2011, Qian Liu, a university student in Canada was chatting with her friend in China through video conference. The conversation was cut short when someone knocked on Liu’s door. The buddy, who could still view what was happening, watched in horror when a man lunged towards Liu. Later, the video link was cut off.
A couple of hours later, a half-naked Liu was identified dead in the grounds of York University. Brian Dickson, a 30-year old student who lived nearby, was charged with Liu’s murder.
This is but a single incident witnessed via VoIP. However, while text chat records and eye-witness accounts may be beneficial in investigating cases such as these, no actual footage is available via the VoIP service utilised by the victims. Compared to conventional phones, VoIP is “untappable”, a fact exploited by organized crime rings and other criminals. Even though some countries argue for lawful intercept of VoIP for their anti-terror campaigns, we can count on members of civil society to strongly lobby against this for privacy reasons. In the future, Skype and their other VoIP competitors will most likely create record buttons on their products. For now though, users can just download recording software for VoIP.
Amazon Outage
Amazon cloud-based web service experienced a rare and major outage April last year, taking down popular on-line internet sites which include HootSuite, Foursquare, Quora and Reddit. Although the outage resulted to plenty of criticism and commentary about how unreliable the cloud is, it also inspired industry specialists to write and think of planning for cloud backup and security.
Microsoft buys Skype
Corporate giant Microsoft paid $8.five billion for Skype, making it Microsoft’s largest acquisition as of May of last year. The deal raised quite a few eyebrows about how Microsoft will influence the VoIP service.
Facebook and Skype team up
The tag team of Facebook and Skype now makes it possible for us to video chat via our favorite social network.
Google Voice announces number porting
On January 2011, Google Voice added number porting or transfer on their well-known VoIP service Google Voice.
Sprint integrates with Google Voice
In March, Sprint announced that subscribers can now use their Sprint wireless number as their Google Voice number. This means you will be able to use Google Voice for call routing, screening, blocking, recording, voicemail, and more.
With the rising popularity of VoIP service(and getting it from a reputable VoIP provider), it wouldn’t be surprising if it finally replaces our old phone lines with virtual ones.
Check out for more details on how you will increase your marketing and advertising techniques by means of a VoIP service. We also provide useful details relating to business telephone system as well as finding a VoIP provider which will aid your company with its communication needs.
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