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Last month Skype was in talks to acquire VoIP startup Gizmo5. It was a perfect backup plan in case all that IP litigation didn't work out. Gizmo5's SIP infrastructure could theoretically replace Skype's proprietary P2P back end. After the Skype settlement, though, Gizmo5's strategic value to Skype sort of plummeted. In the meantime, Google bought them, say multiple sources with knowledge of the deal, for around $30 million in cash. The deal is done, say our sources, and will be announced shortly. Gizmo5 is a good fit with a number of Google products. Google Talk allows voice calls between users...

eBay, the San Jose-based online-auctions giant, is trading two-thirds of the Internet phone service Skype for about $2 billion, reversing a 2005 acquisition that many analysts considered a head scratcher from the beginning. It's really a reversal: Among the private funds buying a 65 percent stake in the business from eBay is Index Ventures, a venture-capital firm which backed Skype as a startup and profited nicely from the original sale of the company. Silver Lake Capital, a private-equity firm famous for tech buyouts like that of hard-drive maker Seagate, led the deal, in which eBay sold a 65 percent stake...

Oxford, N.C. — Sixteen-year-old Ashton Lundeby's bedroom in his mother's Granville County home is nothing, if not patriotic. Images of American flags are everywhere – on the bed, on the floor, on the wall. But according to the United States government, the tenth-grade home-schooler is being held on a criminal complaint that he made a bomb threat from his home on the night of Feb. 15.

Note: The following text is a quote: Federal Grand Jury Returns Indictment on Internet Bomb Threats Hammond, IN—The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Indiana announced that a three-count indictment was returned against Ashton Lundeby for his role in Internet bomb and related threats directed to Purdue University, Indiana University/Purdue University at Fort Wayne, Ind., and numerous other educational institutions throughout the country. Lundeby, 16, of Oxford, N.C., was arrested by the FBI at his home in Oxford on March 6, 2009. A federal search warrant was also executed at that time. Lundeby was arrested pursuant to a...

Suspicious phone conversations on Skype could be targeted for tapping as part of a pan-European crackdown on what law authorities believe is a massive technical loophole in current wiretapping laws, allowing criminals to communicate without fear of being overheard by the police. The European investigation could also help U.S. law enforcement authorities gain access to Internet calls. The National Security Agency (NSA) is understood to believe that suspected terrorists use Skype to circumvent detection. While the police can get a court order to tap a suspect's land line and mobile phone, it is currently impossible to get a similar order...

Sorry to post a vanity but I am looking at VOIP for the small office. I was going to go with Packet 8 where you buy the phone at Office Depot. $24.95 a month and you can add more lines at $4.95 a month. I do not like the people behind Vonage - the Citrons. The family got fined heavily by the SEC in their last venture with their online brokerage. A relative has magic Jack for $40. $20 for the jack, $20 for the first year. $20 a year after that. It is for the office. I also need...

Research has shown that many companies, both large and small are uncertain about the benefits to their organization that a VoIP telephone system offers. 55 percent of North American and European companies reported that they did not understand the value that a unified communications solution can deliver to their organization.

Mac OS X support has been added to magicJack. Could Linux compatibility be coming down the pipe? DB: Yes, and because the of the similarities between the Mac and Linux OSes, we should be able to support Linux fairly soon.

I'm looking to save some bucks on the telephone. I've checked into VOIP, Voice Over Internet Phone, but I haven't taken the plunge. I live in a rural area and get DSL through my local, tiny, rural phone company. The cost for simply having a phone line has gone up from $14 a month to over $40. We don't make many local calls. The biggest chunk of calls is by my wife to her relatives in Germany. So, we have telephone line costs and long distance costs.

In late October I switched my VOIP phone service from Vonage to Verizon's Voice Wing. The reason was a few features not offered by Vonage and the price was the same as with Vonage. It took over a month and several phone calls to Vonage customer service before they would release my phone number to Verizon. They then put a block on my phone number, without telling me, so that my phone cannot be accessed by any Vonage customer. It took me several weeks and help from friends with Vonage service to figure out what Vonage had done. I called...

Don't call it a bust just yet, but it's fair to say eBay executives aren't thrilled with what they're getting out of Skype, which the auction king bought for $2.6 billion two years ago. On Monday, eBay said it would take a $900 million so-called impairment write-down against the value of Skype. This means that eBay has been forced to reassess the value of the Internet telephony company relative to its overall business today. By recording a charge, the company is essentially saying that it has taken a loss on its original investment. In what looks like an attempt to...

Despite SunRocket failure and Vonage trouble, startup says it’s poised for success.Even with SunRocket’s spectacular demise and what could be Vonage’s imminent collapse, VCs are still not convinced VoIP is a bad investment. Exit SunRocket stage left. Enter Ooma stage right. Ooma is a new VoIP startup armed with $27 million in funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, an early Skype backer, and The Founders Fund. Palo Alto, California–based Ooma launched a beta of its product on this week, and its CEO and founder, Andrew Frame, talked to Red Herring about what makes his company different. “Comparing Ooma to SunRocket or...

How does Skype compare with other PC-to-telephone VoIP options, such as Net2phone? What has your experience been? I see wireless Skype phones that work when someone is in a hot spot. However, suppose I don't have wireless, but DO have a regular internet connection and a computer. Do any of those phones have USB adapters so that I can still make non-wireless calls? Thanks.

Operators deploy equipment to detect VoIP traffic over their networks.Mobile phone operators around the world are investing in equipment to counter what they see as a growing threat to their voice revenues from Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). The moves add impetus to a petition that leading VoIP player Skype lodged with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last month demanding that mobile phone network operators allow their customers access to VoIP services via their mobile phones. The gear in question is Deep Packet Investigation (DPI) equipment, which analyses and identifies data packets as they flow across a carrier’s network....

"The FBI has drafted sweeping legislation that would require Internet service providers to create wiretapping hubs for police surveillance and force makers of networking gear to build inbackdoors for eavesdropping, CNET News.com has learned." "One source, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of last Friday's meeting, said the FBI viewed its CALEA expansion as a top congressional priority for 2007."

Voice over IP wielding the knife, says analystVoIP technology spells the end of traditional home telephone numbers, according to an industry analyst. A study by JupiterResearch claims that the rise in fixed/mobile telephone services appeals strongly to Europeans, and that location will cease to be important for either making or receiving calls. The report said that 27 per cent of consumers are already interested in regularly using their mobile phone in place of their home telephone. "VoIP will convert the home telephone from analogue to digital and, once digital, the home telephone number will become unfixed," said Ian Fogg,...

Despite Vonage's ignominious IPO and fresh questions about its viability as a stand-alone provider of basic phone services, some smart executives are betting the market – and possibly Wall Street – will embrace another independent provider of phone calls via the Internet. Privately held SunRocket, a two-year-old provider of Voice-over-Internet Protocol (or VOIP) calls, has raised more than $46 million from blue-chip venture investors such as Mayfield Fund and Doll Capital Management, and the company is planning to raise another round of money later this year. What was Vonage founder Jeffrey A. Citron thinking? It would have been an ideal...

IP phone crooks are learning how to rake in the dough. An owner of two small Miami Voice over IP telephone companies was arrested last week and charged with making more than $1 million by breaking into third-party VoIP services and routing calls through their lines. That let him collect from customers without paying any fees to route calls. Hacking has become a decidedly for-profit crime, with crooks intent on theft rather than disruption. Voice over IP hasn't been a big target, but only because crooks haven't figured out how to make money off breaking in. In that sense, Edwin...

OYCE DORRIS knows the big-time, high-stakes telecommunications industry. She helped brainstorm the 800/COLLECT, "The Neighborhood" and 10-10-220 marketing concepts at MCI. But she's no out-of-touch, limo-riding, latte-sipping, Madison Avenue executive. She knows small-town life, too. The Vienna resident has family in Fredericksburg, visits the area, and understands the mix of commuters and country people here. And she's convinced SunRocket, the fledgling broadband telephone company she co-founded with Paul Erickson that recently launched in the Fredericksburg-area market, will fly high, even with suburban moms and rural grandmas who may be distrustful of new technology. The service, Voice over Internet Protocol, uses...

Thanks to its relentless marketing and low prices, Vonage has quickly become synonymous with phone service over the Internet. But when Brandon Sehlke and his wife, Jennifer, moved into a new home in San Antonio two weeks ago, they chose a new Internet phone service from Time Warner Cable, not Vonage or AT&T, his old provider. Skip to next paragraph The deal Time Warner offered was just too good: phone service with a television package and a broadband connection for a promotional price of $89.95 a month. "Getting all three services was better than anything else we could find," said...

WASHINGTON, May 8 (UPI) -- A group of non-profits launched the Internet Freedom Coalition to oppose efforts to regulate the Internet. A total of 24 self-described conservative "free-market, limited government, and faith-based grassroots organization, individuals, and policy organizations who have come together on the shared belief that the Internet should not be taxed, regulated, or subject to United Nations control." "The big government, pro-regulation crowd wants the government to regulate the Internet. Speaking on behalf of our collective membership of over 3 million citizens, we oppose network neutrality and any other form of regulation or taxation of the Internet. Make...

A U.S. appeals panel sharply challenged the Bush administration Friday over new rules making it easier for police and the FBI to wiretap Internet phone calls. A judge said the government's courtroom arguments were "gobbledygook." The skepticism expressed so openly toward the administration's case encouraged civil liberties and education groups that argued that the U.S. is improperly applying telephone-era rules to a new generation of Internet services. "Your argument makes no sense," U.S. Circuit Judge Harry T. Edwards told the lawyer for the Federal Communications Commission, Jacob Lewis. "When you go back to the office, have a big chuckle. I'm...

It's likely your home phone is such familiar technology that you barely think about it. Maybe it's time you did. Lots of people are giving up the traditional household "land line" in favor of Internet phone service, also known as Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VOIP. Many more would like to try VOIP - if they could do so cheaply and without sacrificing their current phone line - at least until they see how this new alternative works out. And that's where the Internet telephone provider SunRocket comes in. SunRocket (www.sunrocket.com) is aggressively positioning itself as a low-cost VOIP provider...

INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS: Phone Taps Just Got Impossible April 12, 2006: Eavesdropping on phone calls just got a lot harder. Phil Zimmermann, the guy who invented PGP encryption for Internet mail, has developed a similar product, Zfone, for VOIP (telephone calls over the Internet). Zfone, like PGP, is free and easy to use. PGP drove intelligence agencies nuts, because it gave criminals and terrorists access to industrial grade cryptography. PGP doesn't stop the police or intel people from reading encrypted email, but it does slow them down. Zfone, however, uses stronger encryption. This means more delays, perhaps fatal delays, in finding...

Four years after it was founded, Veraz Networks Ltd. is about to make good on its promises. If all goes as planned, the company will float on Nasdaq by the of this year. Investment banks negotiating with the company are hinting that it could go public at a company value of $400-500 million. These numbers will make Veraz one of the largest IPOs by a telecommunications equipment company in recent years. Veraz develops and markets software-based switches (softswtiches) and hook-up solutions between traditional telephony networks and next-generation VoIP networks. The company’s technology, softswitches and media gateways for voice compression, help...

What sort of luck are Freepers having with home VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service. Considering that all Freepers are tech savy along with good looking and smelling nice, I'd like to canvus those of you using VOIP (Vonage, Skype, ???) to see if it is worth investigating.

We Support Our Troops!  For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces. FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT:  Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allies military and the family members of the above. Honoring those who have served before. Five Top Desktop Search ApplicationsMake it easier on yourself! Google Desktop 2 has a clean interface; quick access to online and local apps and files; more than 100 plug-ins, with more sure to come from third-party developers.   The Google Desktop does a mixed job anticipating the content you...

Vonage is looking to raise $250m as part of an IPO, the US-based VoIP outfit revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The cash will be used to fund the continued marketing of the service, which boasts some 1.4m subscribers. According to documents lodged with the SEC, the broadband telephony outfit lost $190m in the first nine months of last year on the back of revenues of $174m. Separately, Vonage announced that founder Jeffrey Citron is to take on a new role as chairman and chief strategist. He'll be dabbling in areas such as developing new...

California lawmakers on Wednesday debated the use of open-source software in the state’s electronic voting systems in hopes it might build public confidence in the nascent technology. Sen. Debra Bowen (D-California) called the hearing, citing successful use of open-source software—programs based on widely published code—by large companies including Amazon, AOL, and IBM. No action was expected to be taken. The hearing was scheduled more in the interest of expanding discussion of open-source alternatives, said a spokesperson for Sen. Bowen. California has already taken steps toward using such software throughout the state. In 2004, the California Performance Review strongly recommended the...

State and local governments may be able to tax certain aspects of Internet use under an existing federal law designed to ban such fees, government auditors said this week. The comments came in a new Government Accountability Office study (click here for PDF) commissioned by Congress to examine a law known as the Internet Tax Freedom Act. First passed in 1998 and renewed after some debate in 2004, the law prevents state and local governments from taxing "a service that enables users to access content, information, electronic mail or other services offered over the Internet." Services like voice over Internet...

The rapid growth in popularity of VoIP phone service is unlikely to slow anytime soon. Just in the corporate arena alone, VoIP phone lines are projected to grow from about 39 million to 532 million during the next four years, according to market research firm The Radicati Group. And that doesn’t include home VoIP lines. Cost is the primary driving force behind VoIP’s popularity. VoIP service is not subject to the taxes and fees that come with regular phone service, according to the FCC website. Also, long-distance charges are greatly reduced or eliminated because information can travel any distance for...

LAS VEGAS--Networking products maker Netgear and wireless calling provider Skype on Wednesday unveiled the first Wi-Fi phone designed to work on the internationally popular voice over IP service. The so-called Wi-Fi phone, which will allow Skype users to access the service and call anyone anywhere in the world, is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2006. The companies also said pricing would be announced in that time frame. The idea, company officials said at the Consumer Electronics Show here, is that Luxembourg-based Skype's members will be able to use the phone on any wireless Internet connection out...

San Francisco (InfoWorld) - Once just a sci-fi fantasy, wireless communicator badges like those from the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” TV series are now being used in the workplace. The crew of the science-fiction show’s starship Enterprise wore small devices on their chests that they could tap to communicate instantly with their colleagues. Devices from Vocera Communications, making headway in hospitals, hotels, and other fields, are uncannily like those science-fiction gadgets. Vocera’s voice-activated devices can be carried around users’ necks, allowing them to talk with coworkers anytime, anywhere within range of an enterprise’s Wi-Fi network. The Vocera Communications System...

Excerpt - Skype Technologies, the Luxemburg company famous for its free Internet telephone calls, today launches an update that brings us closer to an elusive technological dream — the videophone. The new Skype 2.0 software provides the ability to see as well as hear computer-to-computer callers — provided both parties have webcams. [snip] With the Skype 2.0 update, the picture is far clearer, larger and more stable. So much so, this may be the long-awaited application that brings video telephony to the masses, especially now that webcams can be bought for as little as $30. It doesn't hurt that the...

VoIP system sales dwarfed those of traditional voice systems for the year ended in June 2005, according to a new research report issued Monday by investment firm Merrill Lynch. As of June, VoIP system sales grew 31 percent year-over-year, while sales of legacy voice systems declined by 20 percent during the same period, according to the report. The drop in sales of traditional voice systems apparently cancelled out much of the momentum VoIP system sales gave to the overall telephony market, which grew only 2 percent year-over-year, to $2.24 billion, according to New York-based Merrill Lynch. Heightened competition between the...

Excerpt - LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Internet auctioneer eBay Inc. is in talks to buy Internet phone service Skype Technologies SA, two published reports said Thursday. The Wall Street Journal reported eBay is in talks to buy the company for between $2 billion and $3 billion. The New York Post meanwhile reported eBay has offered roughly $5 billion for the phone service. A Skype spokeswoman declined to comment to the Post; the Journal couldn't reach a Skype representative. An eBay spokesman declined to comment.

NEW YORK - Vonage Holdings Corp., the biggest provider of Internet-based telephone service, is planning to go public, according to published reports. The Edison, N.J.-based company is looking to raise $400 million to $600 million and plans to register its deal with the SEC within the next six weeks, according to The Daily Deal. Details of the plan were also reported by The Wall Street Journal. Vonage declined to comment about the reports. The company has in recent years privately raised about $380 million from venture capital firms including NEA Enterprise Associates of Baltimore, Meritech Capital Partners of Palo Alto,...

Many broadband customers will pay new universal service taxes akin to those on their telephone bills if Congress bows to suggestions from rural legislators... The USF currently collects a fixed percentage of revenues from long-distance, wireless, pay phone and telephone companies so that it can pass on subsidies to low-income customers, high-cost areas, and rural health care providers, schools and libraries. Most companies come up with their share, set for this quarter at 10.2 percent, by charging their customers a fee. The USF should continue to be "industry funded," but the base of contributors should be expanded to "all providers...

While the company may not be exhibiting at E3 2005, Vonage met with us to give a short hands-on demonstration of its upcoming Wi-Fi phone. The phone uses a form factor similar to a standard cell phone, but connects to 802.11b Wi-Fi networks. Once connected to the Internet, the phone utilizes Vonage's voice over IP infrastructure to make calls. In tests by BetaNews, the phone performed admirably and automatically acquired network access without a hitch. Vonage's Wi-Fi phone is currently in beta testing and is slated to launch by the end of the year. Pricing will be around $100 USD,...

Like most people, Jay Fields took his phone service for granted. He paid more than $100 a month - no questions asked - to Verizon Communications for a local and long-distance plan and a host of services like call forwarding and caller ID. But when he saw advertisements for a newfangled Internet-based phone service that his local cable provider, Cablevision, was offering, he had no bones about switching five months ago. His says his new connection sounds just as good as his old phone, yet he pays just $34.95 for unlimited local and long-distance calling, as well as call waiting...

A big shortcoming of most Internet-based phone services - the lack of full-featured 911 service - is expected to be remedied this year as providers, regulators and local phone companies quickly coalesce to resolve the growing public-safety hazard. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is recommending that Net-based phone companies be required to offer the full-featured service, called Enhanced 911, or E-911, by fall, three FCC officials told USA TODAY. Commissioners are expected to approve the proposals later this month. ******Excerpt***********

The International Telecommunication Union is one of the most venerable of bureaucracies. Created in 1865 to facilitate telegraph transmissions, its mandate has expanded to include radio and telephone communications. But the ITU enjoys virtually no influence over the Internet. That remains the province of specialized organizations such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN; the Internet Engineering Task Force; the World Wide Web Consortium; and regional address registries. The ITU, a United Nations agency, would like to change that. "The whole world is looking for a better solution for Internet governance, unwilling to maintain the current...

Never before in the history of telecommunications has a more important warning been needed for current and potential VoIP (computer phone) users who have joined, or will be joining, in the inevitable paradigm shift from telephone to VoIP. Warning! Warning! Warning! Beware of VoIP internet service providers that operate on industry standard codec and industry standard protocols because they are PUBLICLY OPEN and INTERPRETABLE! This also includes, but is not limited to, peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. In plain terms, this means, if you subscribe to, or considering subscribing to a VoIP internet solution provider who operates on these industry standards –...

March 11, 2005 VoIP to Fuel Plague of 'Dialing for Dollars' By Michael Singer Voice over IP (VoIP) promises to radically change the way companies do business, but one side effect of less expensive communications threatens to give the whole ecosystem a black eye. Overseas telemarketers are quickly learning that they can use IP voice calls to "dial for dollars," getting around both traditional long-distance cost constraints and U.S. Do-Not-Call regulations to flood Internet traffic with phone calls that would make even the most egregious spammer blush. "If you thought spam was bad, you ain't seen nothing yet," Burton Group...

Internet phone provider Vonage said it's asked U.S. utility regulators to investigate allegations that a "major" broadband operator is deliberately blocking Internet phone calls. Any investigation and its findings will add more tension to the relationships between providers of high-speed Internet and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), software that lets Internet connections double as inexpensive phone lines. Vonage recently met with Federal Communications Commission representatives, said Vonage spokeswoman Brooke Schulz, to discuss an instance of "egregious, alarming and harmful port blocking." Port blocking is when Internet providers prevent traffic of certain kinds from traveling through their Internet Protocol (IP) networks....

San Jose will save millions of dollars, getting a substantially more robust computer network at a lower cost after city leaders were forced to fairly bid a contract that had improperly favored Cisco Systems in the new City Hall. The city council in August was forced to rip up and start over with the $8 million contract after a Mercury News investigation exposed apparent favoritism toward the company and a subsequent city audit revealed San Jose had gone so far as to let the company write the list of 18,000 Cisco parts the city would buy. The new low bidder,...

Americans have had no lack of dramatic news this year. The Boston Red Sox finally broke the 86-year-old "curse of the Babe" and won a World Series.... But events that don't make headline news often are more important than those that do. That quiet backdrop is explored by Sir Harold Evans, a British journalist, in "They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine -- Two Centuries of Innovation," (Little Brown & Co.) In an interview in the winter issue of "Invention & Technology" magazine, he is quoted as saying that America became economically strong through the "adaptive...

Much of the Washington press corps was preoccupied last week with the White House economic proposals, which are about allowing people to keep more of their money. Meanwhile, the National Governors Association was across town hosting a separate gathering that focused on just the opposite. The NGA -- along with its buddies at the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National League of Counties, the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors -- desperately wants to tax Internet use. And they're hoping that Internet phone calls... will pave the way. You're forgiven if you thought this was...

I apologize for any missteps but I need some help and I thought perhaps someone on Free Republic could help or direct me. I just read in Hugh Hewitt’s Blog about the need for phone cards for the Heroes in Walter Reed. The use of Voice over IP came to mind, which would render the Phone cards unneeded. Essentially I would like to cover the monthly cost of a VOIP Line for the Heroes in Walter Read to call their families and such. There are multiple services that provide VOIP and all I would need is high-speed line to the...

BOSTON - FCC Chairman Michael Powell said Tuesday that he would seek broad regulatory authority for the federal government over Internet-based telephone services to avoid stifling the emerging market. Powell told a receptive audience at an industry conference that letting states regulate Voice over Internet Protocol,or VoIP, services would lead to a patchwork of conflicting rules like those which have ensnarled the traditional phone business for decades. To do so, Powell said, "is to dumb down the Internet back to the limited vision of government officials. That would be a tragedy." After his speech, Powell told reporters he expected to...