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 U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the FCC lacks authority to require broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic on their networks.

The decision also has serious implications for the FCC’s massive national broadband plan. The agency needs authority to regulate broadband to push ahead with some its key recommendations, including one to expand broadband by tapping the federal fund that subsidizes phone service in poor and rural areas.

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.

Now you can skip your laptop, phone, iPhone, or office and just meet over your shiny new iPad. Working over WiFi, iPad users will be able to engage in rich meetings featuring WebEx VoIP calling; shared presentations, applications and desktops; as well as participant presense and who’s talking.

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.

Verizon has also launched the Internet Dedicated T1 which will combine discounted services with hardware–a 30 or more user connection for transmitting high-volume email, files, and web hosting. Heavy data users will benefit from Verizon’s third offering called Internet Dedicated Ethernet which will provide discounted ethernet bundled with a Samsung iBG1000.

“By creating new VoIP and Internet packages that include both services and hardware, we’re giving our wholesale customers new ways to support their small- and medium-sized business customers in a time when every nickel and every efficiency counts toward success,” said Quintin Lew, senior vice president of marketing for Verizon Global Wholesale in a release. “Our goal continues to be to arm our wholesale customers with the tools that help them to help small and medium-sized businesses succeed.”

To make the possibilities just a little clearer Cisco offered up this in their press release: Cisco CRS-3 can enable “every man, woman and child in China to make a video call, simultaneously.” That’s a pretty amazing idea. Now, of course some of the data transfer will be used for all our other Internet capabilities and communications, but take a few of these routers combined with high speed networks and the future of IP communications is upon us. Well, at least by the third quarter of this year when the technology is expected to leave trials and start shipping for $90,000.

With Cisco recently purchasing Tandberg and making other moves to position itself as the unified communications technology provider of choice, it is easy to forget sometimes that for Cisco its all about networking. But then again, the speed of the network will make its unified communications (UC) offerings no brainers.

Some of the functionality that Google Voice users love like SMS notifications haven’t been carried along to the mobile web app so other developers have stepped in to fill the void.

Enter GVMax, a free web service that monitors your Google Voice account and notifies you when you receive a new SMS or voicemail.

The work around uses Google Voice’s SMS-to-email functionality using it to send the forwards to GVMax’s servers which are then rerouted to the various ways a user wishes to be notified.

When you recieve a new voicemail or SMS, the GVMax system can send you an IM, an SMS, an email or even a message on your Twitter account.

The service not only fills in a functionality gap, but it also replaces a more cumbersome hack some user were employing involving having the notifications forward to an always-on home computer running a desktop app that would then pass on the notifications to users’ mobile phones.