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BroadSoft this week acquired competitor Sylantro. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"Broadsoft said it would continue to support Sylantro customers and even market and sell Sylantro's Multiplay Application Feature Server while working on ways to technically bring the two vendor's platforms together," writes Telephony Online's Rich Karpinski.

"BroadSoft is consolidating the market and is becoming a dominant player," writes GigaOM's Om Malik. "It recently acquired the M6 application server business from GENBAND, expressing high hopes for the future. This leaves the company with two competitors: Sonus and MetaSwitch."

"The merger may portend many to come for VoIP companies in 2009 as the recession encourages further consolidation," suggests VentureBeat's Camille Ricketts.

More here from TMCnet ... more here from InformationWeek ... more here from FierceVoIP ... more here from VoIP News ... and the press release is here.

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VoIP Planet's Adam Stone today posted an excellent look back at the year in VoIP.

Among his highlights: Ingate Systems' release of new SIP security products, Nortel's acquisition of open source VoIP pioneer Pingtel, the rise of Comcast Digital Voice and Cox Business VoiceManager, the launch of a wide range of new mobile VoIP products, and a number of companies releasing solutions to back up Microsoft's Response Point for the SMB market.

As Stone puts it, it's been "a year of steady advances in VoIP-land. The earth did not shake, the lid was not blown off, no killer apps permanently changed the landscape, but many intriguing developments kept this beat interesting..."

Gizmo5 this week introduced the web-based VoIP application GizmoCall.

"Unlike Skype, which requires users to download a software client to use the service, GizmoCall is Flash-based, requiring nothing more than a browser," explains CNET's Marguerite Reardon. "Users simply go to the Web site, sign up for a username and password, and start making calls."

"The beauty of GizmoCall is that not only can you call any other GizmoCall or Gizmo5 users, you can also call 800 numbers or SIP addresses for no charge," writes TMCnet's Tom Keating. "Ok, it's not free calls to any phone number, but it's a start."

Looking ahead, FierceVoIP's Doug Mohney warns, "GizmoCall may end up on a short list of blocked sites and/or apps by the airlines..."

More here from ZDNet ... more here from Gadgetted ... more here from Startup Meme ...

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Truphone this week announced the addition of Truphone Anywhere functionality to its iPhone application, adding support for inbound calling and enabling users to make calls when not connected to a Wi-Fi network.

As TMCnet's Tom Keating notes, "Steve Jobs will only allow VoIP over Wi-Fi and not over a 3G data connection. So has Truphone enabled VoIP over a 3G connection for the Apple iPhone? Not quite. It's a callback system similar to JAJAH that uses the 3G voice bearer channel, not the data channel. So you're still using voice minutes. But if you have an unlimited bucket of voice minutes, you make international calls across the Internet for as little as £0.03/$0.06 [UK/Rest of World] per minute."

The inbound calling functionality, according to InformationWeek's Eric Zeman, "uses a presence feature so users can see if any other Truphone users are available to connect via a call. The new inbound call capability means that iPhone users can avoid inbound call charges - for example, when abroad - provided they are connected to a Wi-Fi network, enabling significant cost savings.

"However, two features remain missing - text messaging, and an 'always on' feature so you can get Truphone calls even when you aren't running the app," notes TechCrunch's Mike Butcher. "However, I gather they are working on these kinds of issues, and as we all know Apple is not yet allowing third party apps to run in the background."

More here from MacNN ... more here from jkOnTheRun ... more here from iPhone Hacks ... more here from SlashPhone ... and the press release is here.

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Verizon Business today announced a series of enhancements to its VoIP portfolio, including a new interoperability lab, certification of an additional Nortel IP PBX (the Nortel Communications Server 1000 Release 5.5) for Verizon's IP Trunking offering, and availability in Europe of automatic call rerouting for VoIP customers.

"These enhancements demonstrate Verizon's commitment to SIP trunking which has not been seen yet by other international service providers," says Ovum analyst Lucy Hipperson. "Verizon Business is expanding the possibilities of VoIP by extending SIP trunking interoperability with an additional IP PBX platform. At the same time, it is addressing the concerns of customers surrounding SIP trunking by establishing a try before you buy Interoperability Lab and a SIP trunking backup solution to enable business continuity."

More here from FierceVoIP ... more here from xchange ... more here from TMCnet ... and the press release is here.

Nimbuzz this week launched a free iPhone app which supports VoIP and chat on a huge range of networks including Skype, Yahoo! Messenger, Facebook, MySpace, AIM, Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ and Jabber, among others.

"Key features include the ability to chat in landscape mode, IM buddy calling, regional social network support, personal messaging that allows users to broadcast their status updates in real time, and information about who is online and where they are," writes iPhonic's Andy Merrett.

ReadWriteWeb's Rick Turoczy is in love. "Unlike other IM clients whose workflows are cryptic or difficult, getting Nimbuzz up and running on the iPhone was straightforward," he writes. "For another thing, the application is fast and responsive. Within a couple of minutes of setup, I was IMing with my contacts and the messages were instantaneous. At times, it seemed even more responsive than my desktop IM client."

To download the app via iTunes, click here.

More here from Tech Digest ... more here from TMCnet ... more here from VoIP News ... more here from FierceVoIP ... more here from jkOnTheRun ... and the press release is here.