At the GSMA World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia announced that it would be partnering with Skype to provide Voice over IP functionality on future handsets starting with the forthcoming Nokia N97 smartphone.

Rather than running Skype as a seperate application for Symbian, Nokia will be integrating Skype with the built-in address book to allow simple and direct calling/answering of Skype contacts.

The Nokia N97 handset provides both 3G and 802.11b/g WiFi connectivity so owners should be able to use Skype wherever they are.

Skype is a proprietary peer-to-peer VoIP protocol and as such can only communicate with other Skpe devices. There is no word yet as to whether the Nokia N97 or other future Nokia handsets will be supporting any open VoIP protocols such as SIP which would allow for greater interoperability.

Due to the reported popularity of the white-bodied Snom 820 IP phone, Snom have decided to extend the color to some of their other phones for an (inexplicably?) limited period.

For the first half of this year, they will be offering ‘pure white’ ‘snow’ colored versions of their 3xx series IP phones along side the already-white Snom 820.

The limited edition models are:

• snom 370 snow edition phone
• snom 360 snow edition phone
• snom 320 snow edition phone
• snom 300 snow edition phone

The original Snom press release is a little unhelpful as to what the pricing regime is and whether there is any pricing difference between these and the traditional black Snom units.

The press release indicates that the Snom ‘snow’ edition phones are available through the end of March ’09. Presumably the Snom 820 IP phone will just remain white indefinitely.

Openmoko have launched the Neo Freerunner, it’s first mass-production open-source mobile handset.

Neo Freerunner does not yet have a VoIP application but with it’s built-in WiFi and linux based, open software architecture, it looks like it will only be a matter of time before a SIP compliant application is ported. Telepathy, a framework which allows IM and Voice over IP integration looks like a prime candidate.

The Neo Freerunner is designed with sensitive corporate environements in mind. The lack of camera and the possibility of a full code audit should put minds at ease in the board-room.

Specifications:

Connectivity:

• GSM
• Bluetooth 2.0
• GPRS
• AGPS
• WiFi (in final version)
• USB 1.1 slave and host
• 2.5-mm audio jack

Memory

• 128 MB SDRAM
• 256 MB NAND flash

Display

• 2.8 in. VGA (480×640) TFT

Dimensions

• 120.7mm × 62mm × 18.5mm

The Neo Freerunner is available now in North America, Europe and Asia with a MSRP of $399 US.

Sipgate, an established SIP Voice Over IP provider has announced a new software product for the Apple iPhone.

iPhone users will now be able to use a SIP application directly when connected to WiFi hotspots to make free or reduced cost calls over the internet.

This brings the iPhone in line with other WiFi enabled smartphone which have SIP functionality directly available.

Sipgate appear to be offering their free iPhone product via their USA, UK and Austrian websites although, if the software is truly SIP compliant, there shouldn’t be any geographic limitations to its use.

AVAD Technologies, a New York based company, is offering ‘hosted’ IP PBX services for businesses.

Hosted IP PBXs mean that the customer has no need to purchase and install potentially costly servers and associated hardware to run their IP PBX. The IP PBX is instead hosted by the service provider (in this case AVAD) who colocate the neccesary hardware, data connectivity and telephone lines in a data center.

An advantage of this approach is that teleworkers can communicate with the PBX at potentially higher data rates than one located behind a normal ADSL or Cable link. Further, having the PBX hosted at a major data center may improve performance features such a latency and throughput for large, distributed organisations.