Click here to view the embedded video.

The video takes you through the configuration process step-by-step.

The Snom 300 is the company’s benchmark business IP phone offering features such as 4 SIP ‘line’ registrations per unit, a 2×16 character display and a second network socket to allow pass through to a desktop computer, negating the need for an extra network socket at the desk.

Snom press release http://www.snom.com/news/press-releases/press-releases-singleview/archive/2010/september/article/snom-technology-ag-has-joined-compatible-devices-program-for-microsoft-lync-2010/

Skype which has 124 million active users intends to grow it’s revenue generating business by increasing their customer-base and offering more premium services to paying users.

Read more at gigaom: http://gigaom.com/2010/08/09/skype-files-for-a-100-millionipo/

The Spectralink 8400 Series is designed with diverse workplaces in mind such as healthcare, hospitality, retail, manufacturing and general office.

The handset is designed to allow workers to communicate with other colleagues on site quickly and easily by utilising the industry standard SIP protocol for communication with VoIP PBXs and offering advanced features such as integrating communication with Microsoft® Office Communications Server instant messaging.

The software, known as iCall allows for incoming call notification even when the application is not running.

This signals a lifting of the 3G VoIP calling restrictions which Apple imposed on iPhone apps.

The deal will allow free* Skype-to-Skype calling over the Verizon network.

As The Inquirer points out, major mobile telecom network providers have been reluctant to embrace VoIP communications due to the effective change in business model which it could herald. The deal which is to be offered to US Verizon Wireless customers is seen as being a big push to take marketshare from AT&T who are only providing Skype for their iPhone customers.

*free meaning the call itself between the Skype clients, obviously the network costs remain.

The advantage of the concept is that keeping your old hardware in place and just hooking it up to Speakeasy’s SIP based network will save significant expenditure on hardware procurement. It’s not a particularly new approach to the problem of voip deployment in the sense that analog to voip converters have been around since the first days of voip but the offering of an integrated product with support for fairly-large existing PBXs certainly is.

That’s all assuming I understood their press release correctly

Speakeasy press release: http://www.speakeasy.net/press/pr/pr030209b.php

It seems that the two operators are worried that the bundling of a voice-over-ip application with a smartphone would lose them voice-call revenue on their networks. The supposition being that users would opt for ‘cheap’ ‘unlimited’ data plans. From where I stand, ‘cheap’ ‘unlimited’ data plans are rather ‘invisible’ and I can’t really see voip being a lot cheaper in most cases except where the phone could be used with a non-network WiFi connection. Perhaps this is what actually worries O2 and Orange.

The cost of data plans also vary from country to country and both Orange and O2 are international operators so presumably there must be markets where their data plans are currently particularly cheap.

Naturally, if O2 and Orange choose to block the use of the N97 or it’s voice over ip abilities, they risk upsetting their customer base who may move to other operators such as T-Mobile who are said to be more ‘voip-friendly’.

In a new press release dated the 25th February which again mentions Skype directly, EUROJUST state their position as having had their first strategic meeting on internet telephony in 2006 which had included Skype SA as participants.

“There was a positive message from the Skype representatives during the meeting, showing their commitment to cooperate with the law enforcement authorities in the fight against serious, cross-border organised crime. The participants took into consideration that new VoIP technologies could offer a possible communication channel to criminals and criminal networks.”

Whether Skype’s level of co-opertation extends to handing over the encryption keys to their proprietary voip protocol is a good question. As with most proprietary systems, it is usually impossible for the end-user to tell whether there are any back-doors built-in by the manufacturer.

It may also mean that EUROJUST wants to avoid frightening off the fledgling European Voice over IP industry which, in the current recession, could prove extremely valuable to the European economy.