Ted at Signal-to-noise posted about Sam Houston State University (SHSU) switching to Asterisk IP PBXes from Nortel PBXes. They have also moved 1600 IP phones from Cisco CallManager to Asterisk. They've set up a redundant system with multiple Dell servers. Sounds exciting; other universities could certainly save money following suit - maybe even pass on the savings in terms of tuition rate reductions. Just as long as they choose wisely and don't get hosed on poor choices. Years ago, the university I attended was somehow persuaded to buy the Rolm telephony system when it was already outdated. Later, when I worked at a giant telecom company, an insider told me how the sales guys (from elsewhere) had laughed afterwards about how they snowed the university on the Rolm system.

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Call quality issues for VoIP is getting attention from some of the biggies in the industry. Apparent Networks and Nortel Networks have signed a deal to look into quality issues. One project will result in software which Nortel intends to embed in their VoIP products. With such software system users will be able to trace the source of potential quality problems. [via eWeek] The premise is that call quality is subject to many factors, and not necessarily caused by faulty VoIP hardware. Since Nortel is a hardware vendor, such software would help them remotely track customer problems and thus both reduce support costs and result in happier customers sooner.

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An old joke amongst men in the 1970s and 1980s was that they subscribed to Playboy magazine "for the articles." Well, men may be saying the same thing in this decade about Penthouse Media Group's new content for mobile devices, which will include text, games, audio, and of course images and video clip. Is that fly on the (wind)screen, or are you just happy to see me? [source: Cellullar News] Of course, judging by past success with per-minute adult calling services, the real money will probably come from similar adult VoIP calling services, even video. Maybe they should team up with Globe7. Then again, if they do, they may have to turn back potential customers.

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Despite that grand title, the method is simple. Ignore RFPs (Request for Proposals) and just start doing the work. That's what one company in Florida did. Instead of bothering to submit a proposal for St. Petersburg's municipal Wi-Fi project, like their five competitors did, they just started piping in Wi-Fi access to downtown.

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According to a report by Informa Telecoms & Media, we can expect more advertising on mobile devices such as cell phones. Within five years, mobile ad spending will be close to US$12 B. [via Cellular News] Another area that advertising is getting into is VoIP services, such Globe7's offer of free calling minutes based on how much video content you watch - for which they presumably get paid for by content providers such as movie production companies.

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EarthLink Inc. is expanding its bundled Internet and IP telephony service in the United States to eight new cities, including Atlanta (where it's based), NYC, LA, D.C., and others. The service will include enhanced 911 calling, work with existing phone jacks, and function during power outages. [via Atlanta Business Chronicle]

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UK-based Babble.net is now offering their own USB VoIP flash memory stick. The so called Babble Stick is GBP 19.99 (Great British Pounds), has 256 Mb of space, comes with a microphone and headphones, and holds your Babble account details. Babble's FreeB offer is still on, which for a one-time fee of GBP 1.50 gives you 30 minutes of free calling for at least 3 months. They also have a Babble web-calling toolbar, which lets you call phone numbers on a web page from the Internet Explorer web browser.

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Singaporeans will be getting dual-mode 2G/3G cellular/ WLAN (Wireless LAN) Nokia phones via SingTel. These phones will support both the regular cellular network as well as VoIP calls over Wi-Fi networks. [via VoIP News] Dual-mode phones are expected to rival simple Wi-Fi phones because they can switch between cellular and Wi-Fi networks.

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If you're a Linux operating system fan, you probably already know this by know, but Trolltech ASA thinks the first mobile phones based on the Linux OS will be available by 2007. There's already a group work on Open Linux for Palm devices, so you can probably expect to see some announcements about Palm Linux phones next year, too.

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French Skype users will now enjoy the same offer that Canadian and American users get. They can now get free SkypeOut calls to landlines (from and to France) until New Year's Eve. Skype is also offering currently offering free calls to toll-free landlines in Taiwan. SkypeOut calls can be made from your computer or from a Skype-certified Wi-Fi phone.

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