The trixbox Asterisk Appliance is the only solution designed for trixbox by trixbox. It comes pre-loaded, tested, and configured with the latest version of the trixbox telephony application platform. It’s stocked with hand-selected hardware to give you the highest quality phone calls with VoIP, digital, analog connectivity options.
Anthony Cataldo, chief executive of Internet-calling provider VoIP, Inc. (VOII), closely watched the recent patent dispute between Verizon Communications and Vonage Holdings. Upon learning of the Mar. 8 decision by a jury that Vonage infringed on Verizon patents, Cataldo asked lawyers to start proceedings against companies that he says are using his company’s technology. “You are going to see a lot of demand letters going out from us,” he says.
We’re not talking Skype here. This is a bit different. It’s the F3000, the latest VoIP clamshell from UTStarcom. It gives you cellular and Wi-Fi capabilities in the same phone, with a host of protocols thrown in, including the prevalent 802.11b/g. Perhaps the most exciting feature is the Auto-Search function, which finds Wi-Fi networks nearby and stores them for later use.
update Communications Minister Senator Helen Coonan will allow regional Internet service providers left in the lurch by the sudden closure of a federal subsidy to claim funds under a replacement program.
Several weeks ago, Coonan announced the AU$162.5 million Broadband Guarantee funding program. The initiative replaces the government’s Broadband Connect Incentive Program, which was scheduled to run until 30 June, 2007, and is aimed at making sure all Australians will have access to broadband.
However, a number of ISPs had been using individual subscriber funding from Broadband Connect to fund infrastructure rollouts, and were left drifting when Coonan’s department wrote them in the past couple of weeks, letting them know the Broadband Connect funds had run out.
“Registered broadband providers in regional areas who have recently installed new infrastructure as part of the Broadband Connect subsidy program, and who may not have had a reasonable opportunity to recoup a portion of the costs, will be entitled to claim subsidies for connecting new customers under the Australian Broadband Guarantee,” Coonan said in a statement issued this afternoon.
The minister has also implemented three-month transitional arrangements for ISPs transferring to the Broadband Guarantee program (from 2 April), with further details available online from the Web site of the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts from this Friday 23 March.
No new connections
Internode claimed Coonan’s move did not address the full problem created by the transition to the new funding arrangements.
“Internode is not able to resume connecting new customers because the lower Australian Broadband Guarantee subsidies are inadequate,” the ISP’s strategic development manager John Lindsay said in a statement e-mailed to ZDNet Australia.
“The Broadband Connect subsidies were offered to encourage companies like Internode to build broadband infrastructure in areas where it’s not commercially viable,” he added. “Internode’s business case to build this infrastructure was predicated on the subsidies offered under Broadband Connect/the Higher Bandwidth Incentive Scheme.”
Lindsay concluded that these sorts of broadband networks were sustainble once customers were connected, but the Australian Broadband Guarantee model “did not justify the cost of connecting new customers”.
Internode will continue to seek a resolution of the problems with DCITA and Coonan’s office.
A clarification was made to this story. Read below for details.
Perth-based Internet service provider Westnet will next month start offering high-speed ADSL2+ broadband services, utilising the network of SingTel subsidiary Optus.
Westnet will be one of the last major Australian ISPs to launch ADSL2+ services, which allow speeds of up to 24Mbps, as opposed to ADSL1’s 8Mbps maximum. The higher speeds are already available in select areas from iiNet, Internode, Telstra, Optus, Adam Internet, Netspace, TPG and others.
“We have experienced a significant level of interest from our members regarding ADSL2+ in recent months, so we’re excited to make this service available to new and existing customers,” Westnet managing director Peter Brown said in a statement today.
Westnet said Optus had enabled some 200 telephone exchanges for ADSL2+, with 140 more planned for the next nine months. In April last year, Westnet was believed to have dumped its existing upstream bandwidth providers AAPT and Telstra for Optus.
In March last year, Westnet considered rolling out its own ADSL2+ network, and had even tested hardware from a number of vendors. However, since that time the ADSL2+ wholesale market has opened up, with iiNet as well as Optus making their networks available to third parties.
Westnet has differentiated itself in the market through focusing on customer service levels.
“Our investment is not in infrastructure, but in service,” Brown said today. “Our strength is the distribution of quality Internet products with an industry-leading customer service component.”
However, like several other ISPs such as iiNet and Optus, Westnet will only make the higher ADSL2+ speeds available when customers also purchase telephony services from the ISP. Monthly line rental on Westnet’s phone service starts from AU$26.95 — AU$7 more expensive than Telstra’s minimum plan.
Westnet’s ADSL2+ services are available from AU$29.95 for 500MB of downloads per month, to AU$89.95 for 60GB of combined on- and off-peak usage.
Also, users on the minimum plan (AU$29.95) will be charged AU$6 for every gigabyte of data downloaded each month above their 500MB limit. Extra charges for data downloaded will be capped at AU$50 per month.
For its other plans, the ISP will lower users’ speeds when they exceed their monthly quota.
Westnet currently claims some 176,000 Internet, 18,000 phone and 11,000 hosting subscribers, and has 400 employees.
The story has been updated to clarify that the AU$6 charge for every gigabyte downloaded above the monthly limit applies to the minimum plan only.