IP Phones
The new snom M9 cordless IP phone
snom is due to launch the new M9 cordless phone in January 2010, and it looks to replace the current snom M3 model. While the snom M3 had a certain appeal the flush buttons were difficult to function and the finish gave the phone a plastic, cheap feel. On face value the biggest change with the M9 seems to be the new keypad with raised keys and a slightly more contemporary look.
At the end of the day however its whats on the inside thats most important, and this is really where the new snom M9 seems to show some good improvements. Firstly, and most importantly, the firmware has completely changed to incorporate the snom software, as apossed to the third party interface used previously. This means that features like mass provisioning and Microsoft OCS integration will now be supported on the phone like all other snom models.
Another change is that now a total of 4 simultaneous calls are supported (previously 3), and a total of 9 handsets can be registered to a single base station. Other features are pretty much the same as previous M3 model or any standard DECT cordless handset.
At this stage the snom M9 looks like a great replacement to current snom M3 with a couple of nice new upgrades and feature additions. It is however still targeted to the SME business and it would be great to see further development in the product in the future to incorporate more corporate solutions such as roaming/handover between base stations. We wait in anticipation!
Wideband Telephony? A reality in SA yet?
Wideband Telephony, High Definition voice, HD VoIP… whatever you call it, internationally, its taking the VoIP industry by storm causing a surge of new product and service offerings to hit the market from a variety of powerhouses. All well and good; but what is Wideband Telephony really? And more importantly is the technology applicable to South Africa with its high costs of bandwidth?
What is Wideband Telephony?
Wideband Telephony, also known as industry trademarked terms HD Voice (Polycom), HD VoIP (AudioCodes) and HDSP (Gigaset) , refers to the use of higher quality voice codecs to deliver audio quality far superior to any cellular, PSTN or “traditional” VoIP call. A voice codec (if you’re unfamiliar) is what converts an analog voice signal to a digitally encoded version.
Just how superior is Wideband Telephony to traditional calling? Very. G.722, the most popular and widely used Wideband telephony codec, captures the sound spectrum up to 7,000Hz (7 kHz). This means nothing until you learn that the average cellular or PSTN call only captures the sound spectrum between 300 – 3,300Hz (3.3 kHz). With twice the sound spectrum captured you get exposed to a whole new range of sound that increases the clarity and crispness of the calling experience. Hence all the excitement.
The reality in South Africa
Before you get too excited at the prospects there are a few implications that make Wideband Telephony a challenge in the SA context. Firstly in order to experience a true Wideband call both participants must be using a Wideband codec and Wideband phones. Most people you are likely to call these days aren’t using Wideband Telephony. However as VoIP continues to take market share from land lines and cellular networks move to 4G, Wideband Telephony’s presence will increase.
The other major challenge in SA is obviously bandwidth constraints. The wideband codec G722 uses condsiderably more bandwidth than other codecs. At the moment all local VoIP providers (Vox, ECN, iBurst, MWeb, IS etc) restrict the codec to G.729 because it is the best compromise between low bandwidth and decent quality. There are various bandwidth calculators which help to explain this, nice simple one here…
What do you need for Wideband Telephony?
So it may not quite be a reality in SA yet but what would you need when it is available? Firstly, Wideband Telephony starts at the voice carrier, hopefully we will see some SA providers supporting wideband in the not too distant future. Next you’ll need to ensure that your IP based phone system or VoIP gateway also supports the G.722 codec. As you can tell, capability and support are essential to ensuring a quality Wideband calling experience.
With a Wideband friendly service provider and system in place, the last stop is the desktop. Given the growing support for and adoption of Wideband Telephony, a number of VoIP equipment manufacturers have released desktop IP phones that support Wideband codecs. Led by Polycom and their HD voice line-up, you can find IP phones that support Wideband codecs from many popular manufacturers such as Aastra, AudioCodes and Snom. Snom has been especially active in Wideband with the release of the Snom 820 and Snom 870. Although there are a number of choices available today, expect to pay a premium for them. Over time prices will fall, but for now you will pay a little extra.
Conclusion
Although not an option yet in South Africa, Wideband Telephony holds good promise when bandwidth service and costs improve and HD voice will hopefully help turn around the general negative sentiment in regards to VoIP user experience and call quality issues in South Africa.
source: UBandwidth
The Siemens Gigaset DE380IPR
Voipblog recently had the opportunity to test the new Siemens Gigaset DE380IPR, the first desktop IP phone from Gigaset. The simple yet stylish looking model is clearly designed for the residential and SME sector and could be a big hit for service providers looking to standardise on a good quality handset.
Gigaset is well known for their range of cordless DECT handsets but relatively new to the desktop phone market. The move is likely to be the start of more SME solutions from Gigaset since Siemens internal divisions have been carved up and there is no longer the conflict of Gigaset stepping on the toes of Siemens PBX division. But enough about Gigaset and more about the phone…
The physical appearance of the phone is appealing with a raised LCD screen and all the common function keys for hold, transfer, conferencing and DND being easily accessable. The one notable surprise on the physical specs is the lightness of the handset, giving it an almost cheap feel, when compared to more sturdy handsets such as snom.
The web interface is the same intuitive interface as the cordless phone models, so a breeze to configure and set up. The phone supports numerous codecs including the G722 wideband codec. This, along with the Siemens HDSP (High Definition Sound Performance) support on the phone, provides excellent sound quality on the device. So the skepticism regarding the weight of the handset was unjustified when it came to performance.
The built in router on the DE380IPR is clearly a feature that would appeal to residential users or ITSP’s allowing for software selectable router or bridge mode. Below are a couple screenshots of the web interface
Overall the Gigaset DE380IPR is a great product, comparable with the snom 300 or Polycom IP320/330 and, supporting wideband, at a local retail price point of about R 900 it seems like a good deal!
39 Free VoIP Softphones
An interesting review of 39 free softphones by VentureVoIP. The softphones mentioned are all free downloads that do not require any form of registration.
The most well known on the list has to be Counterpath‘s X-lite. X-Lite 3.0 lets you make audio calls to any softphone, mobile or landline number, and make video calls and send IMs to any softphone which supports these functions.
Firefly is also apparantly popular amongst IAX Asterisk users and recently also offers support for Mac, where previously it only supported Windows.
PhonerLite is notable for being one of the few with support for the G.722 wideband codec.
snom 870 phone launched
snom recently launched the specs of the new snom 870 internationally. Unfortunately there is no ETA yet from South African snom distributor Even Flow on when it will be available in SA… but damn, it looks sexy!
The snom 870 is the second model in the new snom 8-series range, with the main feature difference being the 4×3 inch touch screen. It also the only snom phone to be released with a gigabit ethernet switch.
Since the phone has a touchscreen, setting up a conference call for up to five people is supposed to be easy because of a drag and drop menu system. Things like speed dial get an upgrade thanks to the touchscreen and an address book as well. Of course with these features there is an associated price tag, the snom 870 is expected to retail for about $349 or R2900.
Now if you want to have a bit of a laugh, watch the video below that makes using the snom 870 appear to be a zen like experience (it also shows the phone in action).
Company site: [snom.com]
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- The new snom M9 review, some nice new upgrades and feature additions http://www.voipblog.co.za/2009/11/the-new-snom-m9-cordless-ip-phone/
- Cheeky move by SA's biggest operators... the interconnect rate debate continues http://tinyurl.com/yjtxfem
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