PBX

SOUTH AFRCIA LEGALIZING VOIP-WHAT's THE OPPORTUNITY?

Below is a recent article from a South African news feed. For those of you who know me, I lived in South Africa for 3 years in Jo-burg and Capetown. The stipulation of who can be the value-added reseller of VOIP will be limited to ISPs in South Africa of which there are several hundred. The ideal use of VOIP would be for National use, as the long-distance and cost of local calling in South Africa is extremely high. By setting up pops in the various ISPs one stands to make revenue from the local market and the international market. The safe play is focussing on the local market.

There is a lot of opportunity, I have been studying this market for 5 years now. The best way to enter would be by purchasing the IP PBX for each major city, 23 - 25 in total, as this is where the majority of business occurs in the regions and number of calls. In addition, set-up calling cards for the grass roots market and set-up agencies.

It is an exciting opportunity, and heavily inter-connected ISPs make it very easy to channel efforts of doing business in SA. If anyone is interested in entering South Africa for VOIP or is a South African wanting to begin a VOIP business, I will share my knowledge and expertise. Please comment on the blog or email me at Gibson@vocalScape.com.

Those interested in creating a VOIP franchise utilizing our softwares in South Africa, please contact me as soon as possible. We are choosing 3 exclusive providers for South Africa and they will be setting up a reseller network with the ISPs.

SOUTH AFRICAN NEWSCommunications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri announced today that as of 1 February, value-added network service (VANS) providers will be allowed to carry voice using any protocol.

This means that thanks to the changes made to the Telecommunications Act, the long-awaited legalisation of voice over IP will finally be realised early next year.

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“Because of technological developments, there is no longer any difference in the transmission of voice, video and data, therefore it is no longer necessary to prohibit the provision of voice by VANS,” says Matsepe-Casaburri.

Another change allows for self-provision and greater choice for mobile operators, which may now utilise any fixed lines that may be required for the provision of the service, including fixed lines made available by Telkom or any other person providing a public switched telecommunication service.

Other changes include:

* Provision of public pay phones. Any person may now apply for a licence to provide public pay phone services in any area of the republic. “The department is considering the removal of licensing requirements to provide these services.”

* Cession of telecommunications services via VANS. From next year, a person who provides a value-added network service shall be entitled to cede or assign the right to use, or to sublet or part with control or otherwise dispose of the telecommunications facilities used for the provision of the value-added network service.

* Private telecommunications network operators shall be entitled to resell spare capacity and facilities or to cede or assign his or her rights to use such facilities or to sublet or otherwise part with control thereof. The minister says allowing these facilities to be resold would promote optimal usage of the total telecommunications infrastructure in SA and increase access to communities and consumers.

* As from 18 January 2005, public schools and further education training institutions will be entitled to a 50% discount on: all telecommunications calls to an Internet service provider (ISP), any connection or similar fees or charges levied by an ISP for accessing the Internet or transmitting and receiving any signals via the Internet or for such access and transmission and reception.

Matesepe-Casaburrri says further policy announcements will be made in October. These will address the issue of service-based licences to be operational by May 2005, the remaining underserviced area licence, the second national operator, the Convergence Bill and the ICT BEE charter

VoIP and Security

VoIP and Security, Where’s the Growth?

Integrated voice security is a Buzz word side of the industry growing in importance. The emergence of VoIP technologies has increased the complexity of an already complicated telecommunications environment. As IP Telephony becomes a "business critical application", reaching a critical mass of adoption and maturity, it will inevitably become important for firms to foresee the security risks and take appropriate measures now.

In order to clarify what this means, the Telecommunications industries migration to telephony requires more security and planning. Less of this concern has to do with the actual VOIP enabled PBX providers or phone providers and more to do with the traditional companies and their network structure.

Discussions of security in VOIP are often raised, but the concerns have more to do with the appropriate measures being taken by the incumbent telecommunications firms. For the most part, the VOIP focused telecommunications companies and aggregators have taken the measures to protect information and packets, and are as secure if not more secure than current online mediums such as email.

The real growth of the security market will occur in two sectors from research papers readily available online, from the network point of view and from the need for VOIP firewall and VPN technology usage. The VPN is important for applications such as Softphones and Business-to-Business applications, to allow for the secure conversation necessary for “transaction” oriented discussions without a quality of service issue. Why is this important to you? You could place a VocalScape Eyefon click and talk button and be bale to have secure and safe discussions with financial information over the internet. This is ideal for Banks, Soho website owners, everything you see today! VoIP’s growing acceptance as an online communications tool with the 10’s of millions of softphone users, now enables the secure discussions they require to do business. If you want to know more about the VocalScape B2B softwares and solutions, feel free to contact Gibson@VocalScape.com

VOIP Business Opportunities

VOCALSCAPE's RESPONSE

It is exciting times for the VOIP industry, where reports are now being announced measuring the amount of bandwidth VOIP globally consumes. From not even being recorded to being 7% of global bandwidth, VOIP is a rocket. Looking at where VOIP effects our lives, from ATM, Long Distance, and Phone Systems, this is an industry getting ready to rocket. One would ask why isn't everyone getting into VOIP? Well, the early adapters are starting to benefit from getting into VOIP now. FOr the longest time it was cost prohibitive, but the oncoming of Open Source options and a community that supports VOIP, costs are lower. In addition, VOIP is a very collaborative market with partnerships and income splits of all different kinds and variations. It's a great new business or an additional asset that can be attached to existing infrastructure. VOIP is exciting for ISPs and Carriers, as Gateways, Gatekeepers, and IP PBXs make it easy to deploy their own network. One could say that there is a battle going on, where Telco's, ISPs, and Cable companies are competing to supply telecommunications to the home and office.

From an end-to-end perspective VocalScape has created the necessary relationships to supply the top PBX systems and support and the integration of a VOIP strategy. If you are interested in discussing VOIP from an educational perspective, feel free to email me and I will answer your questions in my blog.

Ryan Gibson
Gibson@Vocalscape.com
604-696-6313

Worldwide IP PBX revenue totaled
$89 million in 2Q04, up 3% from 1Q04, and is well on track for double-digit
growth in 2004, according to Infonetics Research's Next Gen Voice Products: IP
PBXs quarterly worldwide market share and forecast report.

"Companies are seeking to run their communication networks more
efficiently, and IP PBXs play an important role in reaching that goal," said
Infonetics Research's Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise
voice and data. "As businesses continue down the path of converging their
voice and data networks onto one infrastructure, we expect the IP PBX market
to increase 45% between 2Q04 and 2Q05."

VOIP SOFTPHONE LICENSING

VoIP softphones are not new to the market. VocalScape has had the SoftPhone Trademarked as Eyefon for several years. The important feature to look for is prepaid and post paid billing and the ability to host at the bare minimum object code on your server if you are going to license the software and offer it to your client base.

Recently VocalScape made a license similar to ISPhone which was given a lot of press, the reason being is that ISPhone will not only utilize the tool for their client base, but would resell the phone to other carriers and ISPs. The relationship is a very large win in the development of sales channels for VocalScape. With the successful lauch of a sales network of partners, we intend to launch the VOIP softswitch, gateway, and PBX through the same channel. Below is the full information on the recent press release on VocalScape.

Vocalscape Signs Licensing Agreement With ISPhone, Inc.
Friday August 27, 5:09 pm ET

KATONAH, N.Y., Aug. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Vocalscape Networks, Inc.(TM) (Pink Sheets: VCSC - News), announces the company has entered into a licensing agreement with ISPhone Inc. to license Vocalscape's proprietary Eyefon, an award winning VoIP soft phone product.
The terms of the agreement include a five year license of Vocalscape's Eyefon, revenue sharing for Web-to-phone revenue derived from all downloads and usages of the Eyefon application, ISPhone's agreement to resell Vocalscape's Eyefon to other Wholesale clients and Carriers, and Vocalscape's access to ISPhone's network services and other value-added products.

ISPhone runs a private VoIP network, which they will use to terminate Web-to-phone calls generated by Eyefon. Eyefon will be utilized by ISPhone to facilitate Web-to-phone and PC-to-Phone calls for their VoIP customer base.

Eyefon is an end-user application that provides high quality Web-to-phone communications from a website or PC to any global telephone number. Eyefon is built for both Prepaid and Post Paid business models, lending itself to applications such as calling card applications, online telephone booths, and customer service applications. Eyefon was developed entirely in-house, including all proprietary H.323 and SIP capabilities.

Vocalscape has agreed to dispatch Web-to-phone and PC-to-phone minutes derived from calls generated through Vocalscape's Eyefon over the ISPhone VoIP network subject to ongoing Quality of Service (QoS) network testing performed by Vocalscape.

Victor von Schlegell, ISPhone President, when asked of the partnership, stated, "We believe the Vocalscape Eyefon is far ahead of the others in the field. We especially like being able to offer a private label Eyefon to our client base and the scalability of the product. The partnership between our businesses is a perfect fit: Vocalscape is a poised to be a leader in VoIP applications and ISPhone is a leader in VoIP networks."
Vocalscape's President Ron McIntyre says of the relationship "The ISPhone team has a very clear vision as to how the VoIP marketplace is developing, and had foresight in the very early stages to implement the concepts of a VOIP network. With their team's experience and extensive presence, this relationship should prove to be lucrative."

About ISPhone, Inc.
Founded in 1997, ISPhone is one of the world's first VoIP networks built to provide reliable high quality voice and Internet data services. Based in Traverse City, Michigan, the company provides turnkey VoIP solutions (authentication, routing, billing and reporting, settlement, and technical support) to service providers, including ISPs, ITSPs, CLECs. ISPhone Inc. is a privately held company. For more information refer to the corporate web site http://www.isphone.net.

About Vocalscape, Inc.
Vocalscape, Inc. is an emerging developer of interactive communication software. The Company has created software and interactive solutions revolving around global communications and Data Voice Convergence. Vocalscape focuses on adding to customers website and customer support centers by integrating website solutions that enable real human assistance, live interaction services such as instant messaging, voice over the Internet (VOIP) and interactive desktop solutions sharing solutions. http://www.vocalscape.com

VOIP Product Revenue

According to Infonetics Research's quarterly market share and forecast service, Next Gen Voice Products, worldwide next generation voice product revenue totaled $389 million in 2Q 2004, up 10 percent from 1Q 2004 and up 21 percent year-over-year. Annual revenue is projected to grow from $1.3 billion in 2003 to $4.8 million in 2007.

Kevin Mitchell, Infonetics Research's directing analyst and author of the report, said, "While license shipments and revenue continue to favor packet tandem applications, this will change in 2005 as the applications achieve parity and then swap positions, with Class 5 applications representing the majority of revenue starting in 2006. New IP multimedia services and Class 5 applications represent the lion's share of the long term revenue opportunity in this market".

Some of the market highlights for 2Qof 2004 were: Worldwide media gateway revenue grew 22 percent from 1Q 2004, with the strongest growth coming from RAC VoIP gateways. The only segment to decline was ATM switch gateways. Worldwide session border controller revenue grew 24 percent from 1Q 2004, and 73 percent from 2Q 2003. Worldwide softswitch revenue split was 55 percent Class 4 and 45 percent Class 5.

http://www.vocalscapelabs.com