Canadian telecom giant Nortel Networks Corp. is using its wireless and voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) technology to spearhead a push into the European communications market.

According to a recent study by Currys, students would sooner buy a wireless router than an iron. Wireless Internet access is spreading fast, from homes to cafes and hotels. There are even plans to give whole cities wireless Internet access, either using Wi-Fi (eg in Norwich and San Francisco) or using WiMax, a long-range wireless broadband technology (eg in Milton Keynes).

Google and eBay have joined forces in a pay-per-call deal which could act as a catalyst in helping the emerging channel gain a much bigger foothold. The partnership means that click-to-call ads will appear globally on both companies websites (and also that Googles text ads will appear exclusively on eBay properties outside the US), according to ClickZ News.

According to a testing company, Minacom, VoIP phone service worldwide "now sounds better and connects faster than the standard public-switched phone network (PSTN).". More specifically according to this report that data collected over the last 12 months by its standards-based, single-ended service quality test system show that the quality of VoIP services offered by telcos, cable operators, and broadband VoIP providers has increased steadily over the past year, with an average Mean Opinion Score (MOS) of 4.2, compared to 3.9 for the PSTN. MOS, an International Telecommunication Union standard, is commonly used to describe speech quality. It ranges from 1 (worst) to 5 (best).

San Francisco, CA and London, UK; 4 May 2006: Measures considered by some operators to block, or make illegal, the use of VoIP services on their network are a waste of time, especially given the clear signals by consumer and business users indicating a demand for these type of applications. This is one of the findings from visiongain’s new report, “VoIP in Europe 2006-2011: Market analysis and forecasts.”

Launched in 1995, SpeechTEK is recognized worldwide as the speech technology industry's premier event focusing on products, services, applications, solutions and innovations. The conference, held annually in New York, attracts a global network of speech technology providers, practitioners and enterprise network customers who are developing and implementing speech solutions.

4.2 million U.S. homes now use voice over Internet protocol for at least some of their local and long-distance calling, according to the Telecommunications Industry Association, a trade group of equipment makers. The TIA predicts VOIP will expand to 18 million users in the U.S. by 2009.

AudioCodes Works with Microsoft to Offer Key PBX Interoperability Solution for Microsoft Exchange "12" Unified Messaging.AudioCodes , a leading provider of Voice over Packet (VoP) technologies and Voice Network products, today announced that its Mediant(TM) and MediaPack(TM) SIP VoIP Gateways provide key interoperability solutions that enable Microsoft Exchange "12" Unified Messaging to connect to an enterprises existing voice network. Key capabilities to be delivered by Microsoft Exchange "12" - the code name for Microsofts next version of its leading server for e-mail, calendaring and unified messaging - include a unified communications experience for businesses of all sizes. Microsoft and AudioCodes have been working closely to develop and test the AudioCodes gateways to help ensure they will be market ready along with the Exchange "12". Microsoft announced its "Beta 1" program for Exchange "12" late last year, and Exchange "12" is expected to be generally available in late 2006 or early 2007.

Microsoft continues to take the long way toward consolidating voice at the desktop, with an announcement Monday that it is partnering with Radvision, an Israeli multimedia conferencing company, to make it easier to integrate voice and video collaboration at the desktop.

New York, NY, March 1st, 2006 . Stealth Communications, Inc., owner and operator of
the Voice Peering Fabric (VPF) will host the Voice Peering Forum Spring 2006 on
March 30-31 2006 in Miami, Florida.