Perspectives of Wireless Marketing Wars ? Who will Be the Winner?
According to the research held by analytics company Canalys the market of ?smart? mobile devices in Europe, Near East and Africa grows more rapidly than market of mobile phones. Within the first half of 2005 9.6 million of smartphones and PDAs were sold compared to 3.6 million during the same period of the previous year. Such trend is observed worldwide ? almost 70 million full feature handsets are sold worldwide. According to analysts the two main processes in progress stipulate such growth at the moment. On the one hand, ordinary users interchange their old smartphones and PDAs to newer ones. On the other hand, there is an upsurge in interest in mobile E-mail and extended abilities of smart mobile devices from companies and corporations.
Modern smart mobile systems are to be: always available (small sized / handy), always On (optimized memory usage, minimal battery use), extensible (new software can be added if necessary), affordable, and of various form factors. Moreover, a smart mobile device should combine the maximum of mobile technologies available at the moment: GPS, VoIP, Bluetooth, IrDa, GPRS/EDGE, Wi-Fi, mobile E-mail, support of HTTP protocol, MP3 etc. This is a vast domain for competition among manufacturers of operation systems for smartphones and PDAs.
There are several very large players in this market: Symbian OS, BREW OS, Blackberry OS, Windows Mobile OS and Palm OS etc.
Experts? Area
Ulf Morys, General Manager at Gameloft GmbH:
- Symbian: more important in the future, but still niche market (Nokia market share ca. 33 % overall; not more than 1/3 of this Symbian phones & some other Symbian phones). Overall optimistic estimate: ca. 10 % of total newly sold phone base.
- BlackBerry: interesting for business / productivity applications; no mass market.
- WindowsCE: difficult to judge. Microsoft will keep pushing it?s platform, but results were often unsatisfactory in the past; make sure that the partners can actually bill for applications delivered to this platform. We?ve seen problems with this.
- BREW: real mass market potential in US and Chinese market, not very relevant for European market.?
SYMBIAN
SYMBIAN ? is a software licensing company that develops and supplies the advanced, open, standard operating system ? Symbian OS ? for data-enabled mobile phones and PDAs.
As of September 2005 60 phones that run under Symbian OS from eight manufacturers are shipped worldwide and a further 56 phones from eleven manufacturers (among them Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, BenQ and Motorola) were in development. Symbian OS is an undisputed sales leader in Europe and has a strong market share in other countries. Currently Symbian?s market share is 55.9 per cent from worldwide sales (according to IDC analytics company), at that 82 per cent of devices were manufactured by Nokia (in whole since 2005 beginning there were sold approximately 34 million data enabled devices with Symbian OS on board).
Experts? Area
Philip Solis, ABI Research senior analyst, author of the study ?Smartphones: The Market for Smartphones and Smartphone Operating Systems?:
?Symbian?s chief advantages are that it is easy to build applications for, and that it has a large developer community. Disadvantages are that Symbian is primarily limited to Nokia handsets, and its market is concentrated in ?GSM-heavy? regions.?
19 of 60 devices with Symbian OS support WCDMA. By the way, smartphone Nokia 6680 is recognized a 3G world bestseller telephone.
Key features of Symbian OS
Rich suite of application engines ? the suite includes engines for contacts, schedule, messaging, browsing, utility and system control; OBEX for exchanging objects such as appointments (using vCalendar) and business cards (vCard); integrated APIs for data management, text, clipboard and graphics
Browsing ? supports WAP 1.2.1 for mobile browsing
Messaging ? multimedia messaging (MMS), enhanced messaging (EMS) and SMS; internet mail using POP3, IMAP4, SMTP and MHTML; attachments; fax
Multimedia ? audio and video support for recording, playback and streaming; image conversion
Graphics ? direct access to screen and keyboard for high performance; graphics accelerator API
Communications protocols ? wide-area networking stacks including TCP/IP (dual mode IPv4/v6) and WAP, personal area networking support include infrared (IrDA), Bluetooth? wireless technology and USB; support is also provided for multihoming capabilities and link layer
Quality-of-Service (QoS) on GPRS/UMTS networks
Mobile telephony ? Symbian OS is ready for the 3G market with support for GSM circuit switched voice and data (CSD and EDGE ECSD) and packet-based data (GPRS and EDGE EGPRS); CDMA circuit switched voice, data and packet-based data (IS-95, cdma2000 1x, and WCDMA); SIM, RUIM and UICC Toolkit; other standards can be implemented by licensees through extensible APIs of the telephony subsystem
International support ? conforms to Unicode Standard version 3.0
Data synchronization ? over-the-air (OTA) synchronization support using SyncML; PC-based synchronization over serial, Bluetooth? wireless technology, Infrared and USB; a PC Connectivity framework providing the ability to transfer files and synchronize PIM data
Security ? full encryption and certificate management, secure protocols (HTTPS, WTLS and SSL and TLS), WIM framework and certificate-based application installation
Developing for Symbian OS ? content development options include: C++, Java
(J2ME) MIDP 2.0 and PersonalJava 1.1.1a (with JavaPhone 1.0 option), and WAP; tools are available for building C++ and Java applications and ROMs with support for on-target debugging
User Inputs ? generic input mechanism supporting full keyboard, 0-9*# (numeric mobile phone keypad), voice, handwriting recognition and predictive text input.
BREW
BREW - Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless is a combination OS, application platform, and marketing system. BREW started with QUALCOMM-based CDMA chipsets and technology ? a vast market ? but BREW is independent of the wireless technology utilized by a particular handset or network and can support other wireless technologies. Ideally, BREW can work with any device, and Qualcomm is planning to port it to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). Qualcomm is trying to remove the gap between GSM and CDMA operators. As CDMA strengthened hand, the GSM lobby propped its own version of CDMA which they named WCDMA (Wideband CDMA). WCDMA has been launched in a group of countries (80 operators in 29 countries), and many more are gearing to launch it within this year, it is already successfully running in countries like Korea, Japan, China, India, Brazil and in some parts of North America.
So far prevalent in the CDMA domain, BREW is gradually transiting to the GSM bastion of Europe as the continent’s operators introduce 3G services based on WCDMA (by the end of year 2005 the number of WCDMA networks users worldwide increased by 2,6 times compared to December 31, 2004 and reached 43,81 million users). Such a scenario could make Qualcomm a worldwide flag carrier in mobile market. In all, 40 commercial BREW device manufacturers (Audiovox, Kyocera, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, BenQ etc.) offer over 135 BREW-enabled devices ? as of January, 2006 according to Qualcomm. Almost 10% of all handsets shipped worldwide are BREW compatible and the number of application downloads (May 2005) exceeds 300 million. The success of BREW has been built on CDMA platforms of major mobile operators, including Verizon Wireless, China Unicom, Telstra and KDDI.
Regardless of platform, BREW requires little memory (150KB), which makes BREW applications workable even on low-end phones.
BREW provides basic capabilities for such advanced services as GPS, VoIP, Bluetooth 1.1, MP3 and MIDI support, video recording and playback, multimedia streaming, e-mail. The set of BREW services includes communication capabilities of TCP/UDP sockets, HTTP protocol support, SMS-MMS services, extended telephony capabilities. BREW supports several programming languages including Java, and via extensions BREW understands C/C++, interactive animation Flash and XML.
The Wall Street Journal paralleled BREW with Microsoft Windows in wireless communication domain.
Experts? Area
Victoria Alexandrova, Project Manager, PDA applications Department of QArea Company: ?Who I see a winner? Symbian, of course. It is convenient, applicable, multi functional and easy for understanding. However, if I were in the USA I definitely would rather use BlackBerry, since they provide top quality service.?
BLACKBERRY
BLACKBERRY ? is a proprietary operating system, provided by RIM (Research in Motion, Canada), for the BlackBerry devices and BlackBerry enabled devices (BlackBerry email is already on a few handsets including Siemens SK65, Nokia 6820/6822, Motorola MPx220). BlackBerry is one of the leading wireless solutions, which allows users to stay connected with wireless access to email, corporate data, phone, web and organizer features. The true power of BlackBerry is mailbox integration. BlackBerry can integrate seamlessly with a user’s existing corporate or personal email account providing a wireless extension of their regular e-mailbox.
The first BlackBerry was released in early 1999. The first BlackBerry with integrated cell phone, as well as the first BlackBerry sold outside of North America was released in 2001, using the European GSM/GPRS standard. RIM at the moment has a very dominant position in the mobile email market. BlackBerry is used worldwide, available from 95 wireless carriers in 40 countries. In November 2004, RIM announced the number of subscribers to the BlackBerry service to have reached two million, having doubled within ten months. Proceeding their steady growth, RIM announced an additional one million subscribers in May 2005, only six months after having reached two million.
Experts? Area
Rudy de Waele, CEO at Random One (R1):
?The market is going more Symbian due to the strategic moves Symbian did with S60 platform, delivering Symbian to various devices of different brand manufacturers and Nokia?s latest partnership with Vodafone to increase the use of S60 as a standard software platform.
Windows Mobile is going to catch up bit by bit, they have the market advantage in US and they can benefit from the Microsoft PC/Mobile synchronization that becomes more and more popular and is a crucial element for the success of mobile data services, but I don?t see them getting quickly at the same level of Symbian on a global level, it?s going to take at least 4-5 years for them to catch-up, if ever they will…
Meanwhile I don?t see a bright future for Palm OS, neither BREW, though BREW is still quite strong in the market due to Qualcomm strength on the market.
Nobody can compete with Symbian as of now, their competitors will have to come up with a stronger OS and that doesn?t look obvious.
At last, don?t forget about Linux who has a lot of potential, specifically in mobile, I see a bright and growing future for them.?
No wonder, RIM manufactures a top notch device (with BlackBerry OS on board) that is secure, stable, and dominates market share with state and local government, the military, and with commercial corporations. In 2005 RIM was the first largest PDA supplier, and their technology BlackBerry occupied the second place among OS manufacturers giving Microsoft product the go-by.
RIM develops its own software for its devices, using C++ and Java technology. Third party developers applications must be digitally signed, that guarantees the application authorship.
Available services are: Wireless Email Service, Wireless Calendar Service, Wireless Internet (HTML and WAP formats) Services, Voice and SMS, Mobile Data Service, Attachment Service, Instant Messenger, GPS Service, Bluetooth etc.
Diagram Year-on-year increment of devices shipments
Note BREW includes CDMA and WCDMA chipsets
The full feature handsets market is hard to predict, however almost all analysts predict steady and increasing growth of this market (which is observed at the moment). Each manufacturer aspires to create a common OS to globalize and standardize application development, distribution and management (as they say) to develop applications for all but not for each distinct device. Some people welcome such opportunity and some are bothered by possible monopolization and subsequent abuses in this domain. What is observed at the moment that each of the manufacturers had occupied a distinct characteristic niche, where he is successful, and already from there with mixed success tries to ?conquer? the mobile wireless world.
Experts? Area
Alexei Golovashov, Senior QA Engineer, QArea Group:
?BlackBerry? One of its main advantages is an advanced ergonomics both of the device itself and its software. The user interface, as of today, I suppose, is one of the best among developed for PDA devices. While its main disadvantage is absence of memory card. Absence of the latter means that it can not be used for other purposes, it is narrow directed. I use my Symbian as MP3 player and to watch movies. I will not be able to use BlackBerry for that even if I want to. BlackBerry is convenient only for business domain, I guess, while Symbian also can be used as a game platform, and its a rather essential part of users who use it that way. BREW, from my point of view, has no bright future at all. J2ME is that well-developed that nobody pays attention to BREW. Furthermore, all BREW applications are to be certified, that complicates their usage and distribution,? - says Alexei Golovashov, QArea’s Senior QA Engineer.
What then
The whole world, and wireless market in particular, moves toward high speeds, multiple functions and extended business possibilities. 3G networks is the next inevitable stage of mobile market development. It provides plenty of capabilities both for business and entertainment, communication and data transfer, Internet access and mobile e-mailing. Most of 3G devices should combine all available 3G technologies to be competitive. This factor will also affect the development of devices and operating systems for them. As we can see, the mobile market requires a device that could fullest reveal the capabilities of next generation mobile networks 3G and 4G. These numbers are dramatic confirmation of 3G leading position: 173 Commercial 3G Operators in 75 Countries worldwide (as of February 02, 2006), over 228 million reported 3G CDMA subscribers (as of November 30, 2005), 826 models of 3G devices worldwide. The industry standard for 3G wireless networks consists of 5 operating modes ? three of them are based on CDMA technology: CDMA2000, WCDMA (UMTS) and TD-SCDMA. In this light BREW OS has a great opportunity to become a leader, though Nokia 6680 under Symbian OS is a 3G world bestseller telephone. The services by 3G carriers are quite actual already ? 80% of British mobile users are ready to pay for mobile TV service, nothing to say about GPS, high-speed packet data access and high quality voice services.
Still large companies, financial giants, transnational corporations and government institutions adhere to the tried technologies ? they use BlackBerry ? undisputed leader in enterprise mobile solutions for mobile professionals and seek no alternative for it. However, if You still want an alternative for You BlackBerry You should be set for paying a pretty penny of some $500 for a new device and a new connection and it is not easy at all to find an equal substitution.
And let us don?t forget that more players like Windows Mobile OS and Linux OS are on their way and hit their stride.
Table Annual global sales gain and market share of each OS
Note BREW OS is not included in the table
OS vendor 2004 % share 2005 % share
Symbian 14,365,850 61.2% 34,000,000 53,27
Linux 6,380,160 27.2% 9,300,000 14,57
Palm Source 1,210,090 5.2% 2,200,000 3,45
Microsoft 1,119,610 4.8% 14,000,000 21,94
RIM 135,180 0.6% 4,000,000 6,27
Others 277,520 1.2% 322,000 0,5
Total 23,488,410 63,822,000
Undoubtedly, there?s still a long way to go: Symbian powered nearly 34 million devices last year, more than double what Microsoft was able to ship, but the gap is narrowing.
Microsoft is preparing their new mobile operating system Crossbow which is to replace Windows Mobile 5.0 launched in May 2005. Crossbow will have both Push Email and built in Internet Pager, thus Crossbow will provoke competition to BlackBerry OS. Microsoft aspires to get over Symbian and BB at a time and we know how this usually results. New product will take time to be tested to make sure it runs smoothly in operator?s networks. After all, will operators agree to update their software and servers for new applications to run properly?
MS provided an adequate tool set for the developers to develop software for their platform. In many ways they are helping to open up software innovation on devices. While developers for Symbian OS quite often complain of its being bad documented and too many OS versions. Microsoft?s long legacy includes an understanding of the Developer and providing Developers tools. Symbian is a newcomer. Still, we shouldn?t forget about the power of open source: Why would a Developer want to restrict themselves into a platform with a proprietary software code? Some experts consider that just the developer support is going to be key in who wins in the consumer market place.
Much also depends on marketing and promotion: Symbian’s operating system is used in many top-end business phones today, because of its support for features such as PIM, voice-conferencing, push email and Web access. Nokia phone stands for world recognized brand and image phone ? and it does pay dividends. To have Nokia?s smartphone is almost the same as to drive Mercedes.
The potential of growing markets should also be considered: the demand for mobile phones in India, China, Eastern Europe and Africa is not a new phenomenon. Just in time enter a growing market and you can lead the race (Industry analysts forecast that 80% of the next billion mobile phone customers will come from emerging markets).
This is a niche market, all around. We say Europe ? we mean Symbian, we say USA ? we mean Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and BREW. BREW ? is limited to CDMA markets (US and Chinese markets), Blackberry ? is closely tied to business and corporate clients, Symbian is prevailing mainly in Europe: it turns out they have nothing to ?brew?. I hope none of them comes to dominate, since that is a recipe for stagnation; the 3 equally balanced would be perfect for fair competition and product development. We can not provide adequate predictions for someone’s success or failure. It will be just a forecast.
All is left is to guess who to place stake on ?
http://www.qarea.com
December 28, 2007
There’s a new route into your company’s secure data. It’s the Blackberry PDA. A hacking program has been developed which exploits the relationship between the Blackberry itself, a company’s internal server and the network connection to which both are attached. The hacking program works because the data tunnel between the Blackberry and the server is encrypted. Intrusions can’t be detected because the protective systems, such as firewalls, exist at the perimeter of the network. This begs the question of all business owners whose employees use a Blackberry: Is your company data secure?
The hacking technique is successful because there are very few companies equipped to detect and intrusion from the inside of the network. Another reason for hacking success is the fact that companies don’t see the Blackberry as a potential attack vector. The Blackberry is not your normal handheld device. It’s a continuously running code machine that’s always on and always connected to your internal network. It has constant direct access to whatever you give it access to and most company structures allow complete access to the internal network for their employees who use Blackberries.
BBProxy is the name of the Blackberry hacking program. It can be loaded on the Blackberry either physically or via e-mail as a Trojan horse. Once loaded, the Blackberry will call back to the hacker’s system and open communication channels between the hacker and the internal network of the company. This process runs in the background behind the safety of the company’s firewall scanning for hosts with vulnerabilities in security and is generally undetected.
Recently, an ad on eBay sold a Blackberry ‘AS IS’ for approximately $15.00. While the device didn’t come with a cable, synching station, software or manual, it did come with something far more valuable. This Blackberry came with a stockpile of corporate data all there for anyone to read as soon as the device was turned on. Many employees are insufficiently trained concerning security issues for the electronic devices they use on a daily basis.
Company data is stored as attachments on a server, rather than the Blackberry itself, so if a device is ever lost or misplaced someone could easily read sensitive documents. The Blackberry lacks encryption capabilities and relies instead on users locking the device with a password. Unfortunately, anyone with hacking abilities could discover the password and let themselves into the network.
The beauty of the Blackberry is that it’s a do it yourself type of device. It basically allows you to take your office with you wherever you go and not be caught unprepared or without the correct documents of a given meeting. However, for individuals and companies who handle and funnel much of their business dealings through these wonderfully useful devices,both internal and external server security must be taken into account.
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Rebecca Welch is a successful Webmaster and publisher of BestCameraCellPhone.com. She provides researched information on camera cell phones and other mobile communication devices.
December 27, 2007
How much are you spending on your landline phone charges every month? Are you paying more than you?d like to?
Well if you have a home-based or a small business, then Skype might be an excellent way to greatly minimize your monthly phone costs.
Never heard of Skype before? Well Skype is a software that let?s you make free phone calls over your computer to anyone else with a Skype account, anywhere in the world. All you need is a computer and microphone and your normal computer speakers to act as your telephone. And if the other person does not have Skype, that?s not a problem, you will pay an extremely small per minute fee to call outside of your country. Currently all phone calls to landlines and cell phones within the US and Canada are 100% free at least until the end of this year.
Skype is available in 27 languages and is used in almost every country around the world. Skype generates revenue through its premium offerings such as making and receiving calls to and from landline and mobile phones, as well as voicemail and call forwarding. Skype, based in Luxembourg, has relationships with a growing network of hardware and software providers and is an eBay company (NASDAQ: EBAY).
In order to use Skype, all you need to do is download the software to your computer and complete a simple setup process. You can call anyone else on Skype, anywhere in the world for free. And you?ll always be able to do that. Not only can you use Skype to make phone calls but you can also use Skype to Instant Message your friends and business contacts. There are some other useful things you can do on Skype that aren?t free (but they?re pretty cheap, actually).
SkypeIn ? This is a cool feature that lets you receive your own special telephone number to be able to receive phone calls directly to your Skype account. When you enable this feature, your business contacts can call your number and your Skype program will ring directly on your computer. With a simple click of the mouse, you can answer the call and talk directly over your microphone and computer speakers. The quality on Skype is excellent. Also, if you do a lot of business, in let?s say New York, then you can get a local NY telephone number so your clients do no incur long distance charges. A SkypIn telephone number is only $39 per year.
SkypeOut - You can call any telephone number in the U.S. and Canada for free. And Skype has very reasonable charges for calls made to non-Skype phones in foreign countries through SkypeOut. International per-minute charges vary by country, but they start at under 2 cents. For a complete list of international rates, click here.
SkypeVoicemail ? If you are not around when someone call on Skype, then this feature will allow your account to receive and store voice-mail messages. You can check your messages when you return to the office. This feature is free when you purchase a SkypeIn number for $39 or can be purchased separately for an annual cost of $19.
You can also your Skype account from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. Last week I was in the Dominican Republic on business and went to the Internet lab to check my email. I noticed they had Skype downloaded on their lab computers, so I simply logged into my Skype account and called my business partner at our office in New Jersey. For a 20 minute call to the US, it cost me less than $2? that is unheard of.
I think Skype is great. Check it out for yourself.
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December 23, 2007
People feel the need to communicate, either to share information or just to have fun. As usual, technology is there to give a helping hand to people and make their lives easier. Communication was made very simple when the telephone was invented. Sounds were transmitted over long distances in a matter of seconds. Now something better is here to help us communicate faster and cheaper: VoIP - the future of voice communication (especially because of the prepaid phone calls!)
If you haven?t stayed in touch with computers and internet technology (which is quite difficult these days), then you might not know what VoIP is, even if it?s very popular nowadays. VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol which basically means that you can make phone calls over the internet. VoIP first started out as computer to computer calls. Putting the earphones on and talking into the microphone was easier for those who used the internet on a daily basis. Of course, they needed and had an internet connection (broadband or DSL modem connection) and special VoIP software.
At first people tried to use the classic 56K dial-up connection, but the signal was poor and one couldn?t understand what the other person was saying. This kind of connection didn?t have enough speed. Today technology has improved and VoIP doesn?t only mean computer to computer calls. Today, if you have a computer and a broadband connection, you can place computer to phone calls which means you can call someone who owns a regular phone from your computer. VoIP specialists paid attention to other options as well and worked on a new technology that now allows people to make computer to cell calls. This means you can call someone on their cellular phone from your computer.
The idea of VoIP becomes more and more attractive because of one thing: it?s cheaper than regular phone calls. PC to PC calls are usually free and PX to phone calls are very cheap. Even the PC to cell phone calls are affordable, all through a prepaid phone calls system. VoIP technology transforms the sounds from analog to digital data. The method is different than the traditional way and some might say it?s not transmitted over a secure channel. For those who fear that anyone who has the tools can listen in on your conversations, just remember your local phone calls are not very safe either and the advantages of VoIP communication are more attractive than anything else.
A big plus for the VoIP system is that today you don?t need a computer to use it. All you need is a modem and a broadband or satellite connection and a phone. This means that you can take your phone with you wherever you go. For example if you go on vacation to your house on the seaside you don?t need to have two phone numbers. All you have to do is take your modem and phone to your house on the seaside. You will have the same number so people can reach you just as easy. It may look the same, but it can be cheaper.
Another advantage of the VoIP system is the prepaid phone calls option. What are prepaid phone calls? Well, it?s simple. When you buy a VoIP system and you set everything up you will buy some credit. Out of this credit you can make all the phone calls you want. That?s why it?s called prepaid because you pay in advance for the services you profit from. One of the aspects you might not enjoy so much when using prepaid phone calls is that, after you use all of your credit, you won?t be able to make any phone calls. However, the good thing is you set yourself a limit and spend as much as you consider fit on communication. You can economize if you use prepaid phone calls and obtaining more credit is a very easy and fast process with the help of your internet connection. This kind of system for prepaid phone calls is only available when you use a VoIP system to a phone or cell. It?s not available for computer to computer calls because those are usually free.
VoIP is the next evolutionary step in communication, so you should really be thinking about letting go of the memory of your phone and direct your attention towards the computer. The only trick in getting the best deal is to be well informed and eager to make use of modern ways. You should really consider prepaid phone calls also because the advantages are more than pleasing. This goes for the whole VoIP system - it?s an investment that you won?t regret.
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Find out more about prepaid phone calls and VoIP and stay in touch with technology by visiting this site.
December 15, 2007
1) Cancel your telephone system maintenance agreement ? Telephone system maintenance agreements range anywhere from 10 to 20% of the purchase price of the whole phone system. In other words you are paying for a new system in 5 to 10 years and only actually getting a small fraction of the system equipment replaced. I recommend buying a couple telephones, handle cords and line cords to replace items yourself.
From my experience, the only business I see that has a need for a maintenance agreement is a Not for Profit Organization. This is because the usually have to keep to a fixed budget. But even in this case, the Not for Profit Organization could add to there stock of backup common equipment, and build a cash account. This cash account can be used to pay for service calls when needed.
2) Learn how to troubleshoot basic telephone set problems ? When you encounter a problem that is only occurring on one telephone you have an opportunity to save a considerable amount of money. When a problem occurs on an individual telephone it can be in a possibility of six items. The good news is you can easy fix four of them by simple replacement.
a) Find a test phone - The first step in determining if the problem can be corrected by replacement is to find a working telephone of the identical type to be used as a test telephone. The test phone can be a backup phone you keep in storage, or an existing telephone of the same type that is currently in use. If you used an existing phone as a test phone remove the line cord from its wall port. Remember this port location because when you are done testing you will replace this connection.
b) Swap the phones ? Remove the line cord of the broken telephone from the wall port. Insert the line cord of the test phone into the broken phones wall port. If the problem is solved this means that the problem is in one of the 4 replaceable items. If the problem is not solved this means the problem is either in the cable, the telephone system hardware, or in the programming. For the scope of this training you should contact your service provider.
c) Determine which item to replace ? If the problem is solve be replacing the phone completely you should now narrow down what the problem is by one by one testing each of the following items with items from the test phone until the problem is solved. Once the issue is solved it indicates that the item you swapped out is the bad component and should be replaced
1) Line cord ? The line cord is the cord connected from the base of the telephone to the wall outlet.
2) Handle cord ? The handle cord is the ?coily? cord connected from the base of the telephone to the handset.
3) Handset ? The handset is the equipment that you pickup, hang up, speak into and listen to. The handset is connected to the handle cord.
4) Telephone base - The telephone base is the equipment with the keypad.
The order listed above is a good order to test in. It is recommended that after you test each item that does not the problem, the original should be swapped back to the broken phone before proceeding to the next test.
3) Buy Online ? Buying online can save you anywhere from 30 to 60% off of retail prices on equipment. Additionally if you call a service to fix a telephone and you need a $2 line cord replaced it could cost you $102 total after the technician replaces the cord for you. The biggest concern in buying online is finding a company you can trust. Name, address, and telephone number published is a minimum, additional credentials such as industry awards, certifications and trade organization affiliations are very helpful
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Daniel Armstrong is the owner of Armstrong Telecom a leading Telephone System Service company based in Binghamton New York. Armstrong Telecom specializes in Vodavi phone systems, is an authorized Vodavi GOLD Dealer and hosts online sales at vodavi-online.com
December 14, 2007
VoIP security has been called in question recently, though there is little evidence to indicate that VoIP security is any less than conventional telephony systems.
VoIP voice data is transmitted via a packet-switched data network using IP. VoIP systems can carry a significant higher number of calls, and very much faster, than traditional PSTN networks due to compression of the voice packets, modern broadband technology and a number of other gateway developments which have reduced the previous packet delivery problems to an extent that the protocol is now a viable mainstream telephony solution to most business needs.
VoIP security should therefore be shown to be at least as effective as that of traditional telephone systems.
There is actually very little difference between VoIP security and that required for any other type of data transmission system. Look on it the same as you do your email system. The same as your office LAN if you have one. You probably have a system in operation whereby only authorized personnel can use certain aspects of the network. VoIP security can, and do, use the same techniques.
However, having said that, let?s have a look at potential weak points in VoIP security that budding hackers may see as good points of attack.
IP PBX CALL MANAGEMENT BOXES
PBX stands for Private Branch Exchange, and is piece of software running on a server. It?s function is to deal with all the switches and connections involved in the telephone system. These can be attacked by hackers or viruses which could compromise sensitive data. VoIP security systems are designed with this risk in mind.
PBX equipment should be placed behind firewalls, locked down and regularly monitored for unwarranted intrusions using intrusion-detection software. It is also possible to put the server in a different domain from the rest of the system, making it much more difficult for intruders to reach. PBX security is a basic aspect of VoIP security systems
GATEWAYS AND DATA PACKETS
The gateway?s job is to convert voice to data packets, transmit them then receive and convert the packets back into voice. These are a potential VoIP security risk in that thy can be hacked into unless there is an access-control system in place to prevent unauthorized people from accessing the system. VoIP calls should only be permitted to specific people, and most good VoIP security systems allow only authorized user to operate VoIP systems under password control.
The data packets themselves can be hacked into using data-sniffing techniques. This can be a serious VoIP security risk and packet sniffers, as they are often called, capture binary data passing through your network and can reroute it to a computer on another network for decoding into a readable form. In order to do this, the ?sniffers? has to be on the same network wire as the packet is using to reach its destination. The problem in installing an effective VoIP security system is that there is usually a lot of information passing at any one time, and the hacker has a higher probability of getting useful information than from a conventional telephone system.
Encrypting VoIP traffic and routing it through a virtual private network would reduce the VoIP security risk, and most corporate systems have multiple encryption layers for external messages. Internal security could be improved by running internal VoIP messages through this corporate network. Small businesses should seek the advice of their supplier, or of a security expert if they feel that they may be subject to such attacks.
However, VoIP security advisors can point small to medium companies in the right direction. Corporate VoIP security is generally not so much problem in that it is normally contracted out to expert advisers.
In the final analysis, however, there are no real differences between VoIP security and the normal security concerns associated with any data network service, such as normal office internet and email LANs. The security firewalls and restricted access to use, common on these systems, should suffice to deal with VoIP security
Copyright 2006 Peter Nisbet
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Peter is an industrial research chemist with almost a fixation with data transfer systems, starting with audio and video file formats and codecs, and here with telephonic transmission systems which allow what is commonly known as VoIP. His fascination with subject is obvious from his website: http://www.data-voip-solutions.com
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