New VOIP law signed

Signed into law by President Bush last week, the New and Emerging Technologies 911 Improvement Act of 2008 is winning praise from Vonage and others, says FierceVOIP.

The new law seeks to ensure phone calls made through VOIP get the same access and protections as other carriers when hooking into 911 services, including rights of interconnection, as a commercial mobile service.

States can also collect fees for 911 or E911 services from VOIP service providers so long as those fees don't exceed those imposed upon subscribers of other services.

The flurry of news over Vonage getting a new CEO and new financing to stave off a potential bankruptcy doesn't overshadow the fact cable companies are cleaning up in the VOIP arena, states FierceVoip.

DSLreports notes that subscriber growth over the past year ending in the first quarter of 2008 has been less than 200 000 for independent VOIP providers; that's less than one-fifth of the new subscribers from the previous year.

Compare that to cable companies 5.5 million subscribers picked up in the last year; Time Warner added 285 000 phone subscribers in 1Q08 alone, and it trailed Comcast's 711 000 subscribers in the same time period.

New Zealand operator and ISP TelstraClear is releasing an advanced IP solution that can transform the efficiency and effectiveness of small to medium businesses, reports Geekzone.

The company has developed an IP-based telephony system, called IP Gateway, which offers advanced call control functions, Web-based management options, and the ability to connect multiple sites together in one easy system.

Head of Business for TelstraClear, Brenda Stonestreet, says the features that IP Gateway provides would previously have cost tens of thousands of dollars and was the strict domain of big business.