An industry standard supported by most equipment vendors, IPSec encrypts all data prior to transmission and then authenticates the data upon receipt to make sure it hasn’t been altered. In addition, the data source is authenticated to prevent “spoofing” of an IP address which hackers use to pass themselves off as legitimate users to take advantage of a VoIP and data network.

The revved up security will hopefully nix any concerns companies might have about switching from legacy TDM to new IP-based communications offerings. Offering secure calls is sure to help convince hesitant companies that the benefits of IP are truly starting to outweigh the negatives. According to Verizon, they are the only major provider offering this connection.

Standard video services will include an interactive web reservation portal to schedule global video calls via phone, email and fax that will inferface with Outlook and Lotus Notes’ calendar functions.

“By adding video conferencing services to our suite of UCC solutions, CSC is positively contributing to the rapid growth of the enterprise video communications market, as well as our customers’ bottom line,” said Jason Cory, CSC’s vice president of communications and network services in a release.

The Vonage application provides high-quality, outbound international calling over WiFi and cellular networks in addition to free domestic calls over WiFi. Users can choose between Vonage World Mobile with unlimited international calling to more than 60 countries, or Vonage Mobile Pay-Per-Use.

Michael Tempora, senior vice president of product management for Vonage hinted that we’ll eventually see VoIP calls over the data networks, but more and more it looks like we really might be waiting until 4G to get the true functionality we want. “We are focused on ensuring that our customers can enjoy all the benefits of their Vonage service from any location using any device that can access the Internet. We will continue to expand our offerings in 2010 to include a robust set of voice and messaging services that utilize Wi-Fi and 3G wireless networks,” said Tempora in a release.

The Truphone iPad application gives customers free calling to other Truphone and Google Talk users using WiFi as well as international calling to mobile phones and landlines for as low as 5 cents a minute. Truphone provides an unlimited calling plan, free voicemail and instant messaging.

Truphone has a history of being first out the door, claiming to ‘officially’ have beaten most players to the punch with it’s iPhone app.

As part of the approval deal with the European Commission, Cisco had to make a few concessions. For one, Cisco had to divest ownership of its TelePresence Interoperability Protocol (TIP) and the library of open source software useful to implementers of TIP to an independent industry body while providing all other rights necessary to implement TIP and authorize the industry body to license those rights to any interested party, royalty-free. Cisco must also make available royalty-free information about Cisco’s own implementation of the protocol that will facilitate efforts to interoperate with Cisco multi-screen TelePresence systems.

Avaya Inc. has won the auction to acquire Nortel Networks (NYSE: NT)’ Enterprise Solutions unit and some associated operations, but the firm had to boost its bid from $475 million to $900 to capture the Nortel assets.

Avaya staved off a last minute offer from Siemens Enterprise Communication and its private equity partner, Gores Group LLC. The enterprise unit provides landline phone systems to customers on a worldwide basis. In July, Avaya had submitted a $475 million stalking horse offer for the assets and last week that bid was challenged by an undisclosed suitor, which turned out to be the Siemens-Gores offer. The enterprise operation recorded revenues of $2.4 billion in 2008.

iPhone (or, more specifically, iPhone users) are strangling the AT&T network. It’s not a pretty picture for AT&T.

AT&T must know what their customers think of their network. If AT&T customers are telling me their tales or woe, they’re telling AT&T. If I were handcuffed to a two-year contract where I was paying big bucks (you can easily end up paying AT&T $150 a month), I’d be pretty emotional if I found out I was lumbered with the appalling levels of service that some folks seem to endure.

We started with Cingular wireless and the service was great everywhere in the country. Even back in the old analog phone days (yes, we’ve been with them quite a while) the service and coverage areas were great.

Then AT&T got involved. Before the iPhone we were already suspect of AT&T service. One of the largest predatory lenders had a seat on the board of directors at AT&T. The company was sued for failing to pay taxes on phone service, claiming they were an advertising company instead.

How did that shady deal take place? Apparently when someone used a pay phone (good luck finding one now) AT&T forced the caller to listen to an advertisement first.

The FCC sued, AT&T lost the suit, and paid for the dumb idea.

Who was the big loser in that deal? Rural telephone companies and children. Part of the surcharge was supposed to go to rural schools.

In another suit, AT&T Inc. paid $550,000 to settle claims that it erroneously billed nearly 50,000 people in Pennsylvania for long-distance service. Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett said investigators determined that AT&T, for approximately three months in 2004, erroneously billed nearly 50,000 people $3.95 per month for a discount long-distance service plan, although those people claimed they were not AT&T customers or had canceled the service.

When a predatory lender and former CEO of Household International is on the board of directors the company is bound to suffer. The news said this about Aldinger in May 2009:

In the recent Household Financial securities lawsuit jury trial (about which refer here), among the individual defendants who were found to have acted recklessly in making public disclosures was Household director William Aldinger. As a result, Aldinger not only faces the prospect of having to pay monetary damages; he also faces further questions about his continued service on other corporate boards.

As reflected in a May 12, 2009 Chicago Tribune article (here), Aldinger serves on the board of four other publicly traded companies: Illinois Tool Works; AT&T; Charles Schwab Corp.; and KKR Financial Holdings LLC. As the article notes, “the verdict raises the question of whether Aldinger should have to resign from the boards.”

Now, in September 2009, our AT&T wireless service is right where we did not want it to be. Our fears have been realized. Service is terrible. “Waiting for data service” seems to last forever. Data transmission is slow. Dropouts are frequent.

Now I will pay my recent AT&T bill of $170.

By the way, how much did William F. Aldinger III earn as a director of AT&T in 2008? $263,042 is your answer.

While Nortel blamed much of the decline on its wireless segments, it’s likely that Nortel’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings impacted the VoIP part of the group’s earnings as well, as every division of the company saw a marked revenue decline for the quarter.

Company-wide, Nortel reported a net loss of $507 million for the quarter, as its $1.73 billion in revenue was off more than $1 billion from the $2.76 billion it recorded in the first quarter of 2008. The company said it is still in the midst of reorganizing its divisions, and it will begin reporting Carrier VoIP and Application Solutions earnings as a separate segment beginning in the third quarter of 2009.

On a bright note, the company announced that it has sold more than 1,000 units of its Business Communication Manager 450 product, which provides unified communications capabilities for small- and medium-sized businesses, since its launch in October 2008, making it the fastest-selling product in company history.

“Our goal is to give enterprises technology that improves the customer experience but also affords them the ultimate financial flexibility when deploying voice services,” said Jamie Bertasi, senior director of Business Solutions at Tellme. “From initial deployments we’re seeing impressive cost savings and results that we’re sure our customers will be excited about.”

Tellme’s automated answering platform also got updated in this release as a result of collaboration with Microsoft’s Speech Components Group.

Customers within AT&T’s service footprint are being asked to contact AT&T for alternative voice service, be it legacy wireline (probably not going to happen, given the continued decline in that service) or U-Verse voice over AT&T DSL. Out of region customers are being told that they have alternatives available with other service providers.