Originally available only on smartphone platforms like Android, iOS, and others, Viber has added a desktop client that seamlessly interoperates with its mobile apps and now enables video calling for the first time.

The result is a combination of just about every kind of communication you could wish for in a single client: mobile text-like messaging, audio, and video. Which means that not only is Viber competing with mobile messaging platforms like the massive WhatsApp, it’s also competing with existing VOIP giant Skype.

And it’s got a few advantages on both sides.

With its new desktop client, Viber can seamlessly transfer calls between mobile and laptop, handy if you need to get out of the office in the middle of a call. It seamlessly syncs contacts between devices, silently and continuously, and it shows your received and sent messages on all your Viber-equipped devices.

“People spend a substantial amount of time on their smartphones,” Viber CEO Talmon Marco said in a statement. “However, a lot of that usage takes place at home or in the office, where they have laptops or desktops close by. With Viber Desktop you always get to use the most convenient device. You can seamlessly switch devices while messaging and even transfer calls between your mobile and desktop.”

Skype has been the de-facto leader in desktop audio and video communication for years, but its days at the top may be numbered if relatively young upstart Viber continues to grow at its current pace.

The VOIP communications company with its roots in mobile announced today that it has hit the 200 million user mark — startlingly fast growth for the young company which had 140 million users just in December. That’s perhaps not surprising, as the company is growing at mobile speed — it was the ninth most-downloaded app on Google Play as of March, 2013.

In contrast, Skype hasn’t released user numbers in some time, but the company did say it had about 280 million users six months ago, and it has made no secret of its goal: one billion users. It’s worth noting, however, that Skype probably has some user acquisition surprises up its sleeve: It had the third most-downloaded app in Google Play in March, and it recently announced that its users were spending two billion minutes a day on Skype.

On the mobile side, messaging apps such as WhatsApp are killing it, too. WhatsApp was the second most-downloaded app on Google Play, just behind Facebook … and two spots up on Facebook Messenger.

Clearly, messaging is a very, very competitive market.

According to Viber, however, it is “more flexible” than existing VOIP apps (read: Skype) and more convenient than mobile-only platforms. And the company just added eight languages to reach 27 total, to help it expand globally.

photo credit: coreyokada via photopin cc

Michael Ventimiglia is a writer and editor at GetVoIP.com.

Things have been heating up between the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the VoIP industry lately. It’s undeniable that the government installation has taken a more active interest in the future of the industry; however, they have often found themselves with little grounds to do so.

For example, earlier this year AT&T stated that under the state-based American Legislative Exchange Council’s model Internet is defined as an “informative service,” not a telecommunications service; therefore, the FCC has little right to regulate VoIP service. Additionally, the provider also look ed to abolish more regulation. In doing so the FCC was met with tremendous backlash—which has furthered the FCC’s interest in regulation.

And yet, despite all inner conflict, the FCC looks primed to implement new regulatory policies.

Today, the world is abuzz as FCC Commission Chairman, Julius Genachowski, a key figure in monitoring and regulating the technology industry, announced his resignation. Additionally, Commissioner Robert McDowell has also announced his planned departure. McDowell has been a formidable presence against the government’s involvement with the internet. That being said, McDowell’s stance was hinged on keeping US and foreign governments as well as the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) away from internet regulation/control while stunting the UN’s control over the platform. Now, with his imminent departure on the horizon, the FCC’s role looks likely to change.

With this shift in personnel comes rabid speculation — i.e. who fill these men’s shoes, and what effect will these departures have on regulatory practices and policies. The next regime within the FCC will be forced to deal with a number of rising issues, including the decline of traditional phone service, the pros and cons of VoIP regulation, making broadband universal service, the standardizing of services, and user/provider/government concerns.

It seems likely that both FCC chairs’ replacements will come from both the Republican and Democratic parties. While this seems a minor detail, it’s important as both parties will be able to elect their own candidate regardless of their variances in ideas. This is definitely good news. With broader representation, it’s more likely that policies will be subject to more than one ideal/perspective; therefore, they may better represent a medium.

Yet regardless of who fills both Genachowski’s and McDowell’s shoes, it seems clear that the FCC will take a more active role in regulating/monitoring both VoIP as well as the internet at large. The days of using legal technicalities to evade regulation look to be over.

Speculation may be at fever pitch, but the facts are there too. In an increasingly connected, internet-based world it only makes sense for the government to pursue a more active role. Additionally, as PSTN services fade and VoIP continues to expand, regulation becomes more an eventuality than a possibility. The FCC, users/consumers, and service providers undoubtedly have their concerns—i.e. would increased regulation ultimately yield positive or negative effects? Would the industry’s size and growth be stunted, or would increased regulation be better for users?

However, it looks as though the gears are in motion. Regardless of stances both for and against, increased FCC presence seems inevitable. Even so, while changes loom on the horizon the future of the VoIP industry remains unclear.

Michael Ventimiglia is GetVoIP.com’s writer and editor. With experience in a variety of fields, Mike is able to offer unique insights on every facet of the VoIP industry, as well as other fields of technology.

VoIP call photo via Shutterstock

Rachel Greenberg writes about residential and business VoIP solutions and technology for VoIPReview.org.

In mid-January, VoIP service provider VoIP-Pal successfully tested their new Lawful Intercept Technology. Labeled “LI” for short, VoIP-Pal’s intercept technology allows law enforcement agencies to tap into VoIP calls without either the calling or called party knowing. As VoIP gains more and more customers each year, it has become increasingly necessary for law enforcement officials to have access to the same kinds of security protocols with VoIP as they do with analog service.

After the successful test, VoIP-Pal received a patent from the US Patent Office for their LI Technology. Soon, the company will make their technology available to VoIP service providers, who will face growing insistence from the government to support LI access.

VoIP-Pal CEO Dennis Chang says “it is only a matter of time when it will become mandatory for all VoIP service providers.” However, now that law enforcement agencies have a new way to wiretap VoIP calls just like analog calls, the discussion continues over wiretapping regulations.

Why is VoIP wiretapping important?

Unlike traditional phone service, VoIP is much harder to wiretap because it isn’t directly tied to a physical location. Additionally, the voice data contained within a VoIP call can be encrypted in such a way that it is hard for law enforcement agencies to decipher a call.

VoIP also allows users to be mobile, giving them access to their VoIP service from anywhere in the world. As a result, law enforcement agencies struggle with adequately wiretapping VoIP calls. However, police groups need to be able to wiretap VoIP calls just as they need to wiretap any other call: when there is reasonable evidence of suspicious or unlawful activity, wiretapping can provide invaluable evidence.

How has wiretapping changed?

Wiretapping with traditional phone service dates back to the late 1800s, and the earliest days of the telephone. During the Prohibition Era, law enforcement organizations used wiretapping evidence to convict known bootleggers by recording their phone conversations. Wiretapping became a useful tool against organized crime, as long as it was used within the confines of the law (that is, there was sufficient evidence to necessitate the privacy violation associated with wiretapping).

At times, wiretapping was abused by law enforcement, though, and so laws have been put in place to ensure only legal wiretapping, sometimes called lawful interception, takes place. These laws require law enforcement agencies find just cause before presenting their lawful interception request to a judge. The judge will then issue a court order for lawful interception. Then, and only then, is law enforcement authorized for wiretapping.

Currently, police have to go through this same process before wiretapping a VoIP call, but it could be technologically difficult to tap into the conversation. With VoIP-Pal’s patent, system barriers should no longer prevent police from successfully tapping VoIP calls.

What Does This Mean for VoIP?

With LI services ready to launch, it could soon become equally easy to wiretap a VoIP call as any analog call. However, residential and business VoIP customers should expect no changes in their regular VoIP service. This technology will just prevent criminals from using VoIP services to circumvent the risk of wiretapping.

That said, wiretapping is still in a grey area for law enforcement agencies. Since VoIP sends voice data over the Internet, it’s harder to classify as a traditional phone service, which means laws will need to reflect the technological differences in the system. Although there are strict rules involving wiretapping traditional phone service, regulations surrounding newer communication services (i.e. text messages and emails) are a little less clear.

Many law enforcement agencies can access email and text correspondence without jumping through as many hoops as they do with wiretapping phones. Will VoIP fall under the same jurisdiction as text messages and emails, or will it be treated like traditional phone service? That’s a question the government will need to answer in the next year or so.

Eavesdropping photo via Everett Collection/Shutterstock

Rachel Greenberg writes about residential and business VoIP solutions and technology for VoIPReview.org.

SIP from Twilio is here! What does it all mean?!

If you’ve never does enterprise-level phone systems or call center work before, SIP might be an unfamiliar concept.

The acronym stands for Session Initiation Protocol. It’s the backbone of VoIP technology, and much like HTTP, it’s based on the concept of creating and destroying sessions.

As Emma Dannin, Twilio’s senior product manager for voice, told VentureBeat in a recent phone chat, “It’s a protocol that’s been around for quite some time and just now been seeing adoption [outside large telcos].”

Today, however, the telephony startup is trying to reach out to a broader range of developers with Twilio for SIP.

“Twilio has the dial verb [a command in the service's bespoke programming language] that allows you to dial a phone,” said Dannin, “and we have the client offering that uses flash and WebRTC to make calls from client applications. But with SIP, we’re giving developers and companies hands-on access to basically what’s been the underlying guts of all this communication.

“It allows a lot more flexibility and a lot more power.”

For example, say you’ve got an inbound call center or you work for a large company that already has invested in a PBX box or other SIP hardware. Or you’re just doing a lot (really, a lot) of traditional Twilio telephony stuff.

“This is really for developers who want to build something on top of SIP and haven’t had access to it before, or enterprises who’ve invested a bunch of money into hardware,” said Dannin. “And for the inbound call centers, where by investing a little in a SIP box and building some code using standard web programming languages, you can move over to SIP really quickly.”

Not to mention it can save a lot of money when you’re dealing in high volumes of inbound calls. SIP calling from Twilio is launching now; this is for inbound calling only,” which Dannin says still means “a great oppportunity for you to move off the public telephony switches”.

But inbound calls aren’t the end of the road for Twilio’s SIP work. Dannin said the startup wanted to get a good, solid product out in the wild for developers and companies to use, then improve and expand accordingly.

Image credit: Paul Hakimata Photography/Shutterstock

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Both Twilio and 500 Startups are dedicated to growing and connecting the international startup community. Twilio’s technology simplifies building global communication networks, and 500 Startups nurtures entrepreneurs from around the world. When their powers combine, they will provide financing and mentorship to applicant companies that make “creative use of the Twilio API.”

Twilio provides telephony infrastructure via the cloud. Using the technology, developers can add call, text, and VoIP capabilities to their web and mobile apps. The service is active on six continents (penguins don’t have much need for VoIP) and can power communication in 150 countries. Historically, setting up cross-border communication systems was not something the average startup could do. Twilio’s API helps make telephony services globally accessible.

“At Twilio, we think SMS and voice should work the same way,” said Twilio product manager Patrick Malatack in a statement last year. “There are no geopolitical boundaries for the web, and we want to ensure developers can work with the telecom network like they do other Internet services.”

500 Startups is a global seed fund and accelerator program founded by the colorful Dave McClure. McClure has been an extremely vocal advocate for startups in emerging markets and makes a significant number of investments in companies operating in Asia, Latin America, and Europe.

“I’m being Captain Obvious to say that that there is incredible innovation happening in Europe,” McClure said in a statement. “Entrepreneurs in those countries often have limited access to venture capital. We’re already investing actively all around the world, Europe included. So we’re pumped to be continuing with Twilio Fund Europe.”

Twilio Fund 2013 will provide seed funding as well as free Twilio credits. Applicants must be building or about to launch a service powered by Twilio’s web service APIs, privately held, less than five years old, and have received less than in funding.

The microfund was first formed with 500 Startups back in 2010. Over a dozen startups have received funding to date. The 2012 finalists were announced yesterday –  Babelverse, Call Loop, Healthsouk, Sessions, and Wedgies. The deadline for applying for the 2013 fund is May 1.

Photo credit: C.P.G.Grey/Flickr

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

After launching voice calls for Canadian iPhone users earlier this month, Facebook today began rolling out the feature for those in the U.S.

To send and receive voice calls, you’ll need to install Facebook’s standalone Messenger app for the iPhone. Then select a person to chat with, choose the “i” button in the top right of the screen, and select “Free voice call.” Unfortunately, Android users only have the capability to send voice messages, which also previously launched in Canada.

For Facebook users, voice calls are an added layer of convenience. Now you can get in touch with friends even if you don’t know their phone numbers, or if you’re somewhere with spotty cellular reception (but a steady Internet connection).

While a strangely quiet upgrade for Facebook, the move is no less significant. It pits the company squarely against popular Internet calling apps like Rebtel, Viber, and Skype. In the end, the less reason users have to leave the company’s apps, the better for Facebook.

While it’s somewhat awkward to use now since it requires a separate app, you can expect the voice calling feature to make its way into Facebook’s primary mobile app eventually.  We’ve already seen Facebook bring over features first found on its Messenger app. And once Facebook is confident in the voice calling feature, expect it to be prominently displayed, instead of hidden in an obscure menu.

Via The Verge

Wojciech Mazurczyk (10 points if you can pronounce that name) has found a way to hide data in the 70-bit packets that Skype sends by default when it’s detecting silence … when you’re not talking. Skype itself does nothing with these packets when it receives them, but Mazurczyk’s team has discovered a way to intercept and decode them anyway, according to New Scientist.

An even higher level of secrecy might seem like overkill for an already-encrypted call, but Skype is owned by Microsoft, and we know that 3-letter American government agencies want the ability to monitor your digital communications on Skype and social networks … and have asked Microsoft, Facebook, and others for backdoors in their communications technologies.

Microsoft does have a patent application in process called “Legal Intercept” that enables the ability to record “any kind of voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) communications” by re-routing messages over “a path that includes a recording agent.”

It’s unclear at this point whether law enforcement agencies are actually intercepting and listening to Skype conversations, but the Skype privacy policy does seem to allow for it, including the actual “content of instant messaging communications, voicemails, and video messages” in a long list of data that Skype collects on its users.

And this clause basically says that what you do or say on Skype could be disclosed and, I suppose, used against you in a court of law for basically any reason, including the fairly nebulous “protecting Skype’s interests:”

Skype may disclose personal information to respond to legal requirements, exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims, to protect Skype’s interests, fight against fraud and to enforce our policies or to protect anyone’s rights, property, or safety.

All of which goes to show why security researchers might be tempted to find ways to use probably the most popular VoIP app on the planet without airing their private conversations for anyone in law enforcement to enjoy.

A Microsoft representative I contacted for comment could not speak about this issue immediately (it is, after all, the weekend). A Skype representative, similarly, is conferring with the company’s chief security officer, who is based in the UK, before commenting.

Mazurczyk will be presenting his team’s work and findings at a steganography conference this summer in France.

photo credit: Chris Pirillo via photopin cc, Vince Welter via photopin cc

Facebook has just announced a spiffy new feature. Through Facebook Messages, you can send voicemail to your Facebook friends.

This new feature has just been added to the most recent version of Facebook’s iOS and Android mobile applications.

Perhaps more interesting, Facebook is also testing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calling (à la Skype). This product test will be rolling out first to Facebook for iOS users in — wait for it — Canada.

Finally, someone puts Canada first. Good on ya, Canadians.

“To use this new feature, simply tap the ‘+’ next to the box where you write a message, then tap ‘Record’ and hold down the record button to talk,” writes our Facebook source in an email.

“When you’re ready to send, just release the button. Letting go sends the voice message, sliding off it cancels the message.”

Here’s what the new feature looks like:

You can listen to voice messages either from the Messenger app or from Facebook.com.

To test the voice calling feature, Facebook iOS users in Canada can start a phone conversation with a Facebook friend by tapping the “i” button in the top right corner. From there, just tap ‘Free Call’ to start the VoIP call.

The VoIP calls use your phone’s data plan rather than your phone’s calling minutes. Anyone wishing to use VoIP calling features needs to update to the newest version of the app.

A Facebook source let us know that the company is evaluating the pilot program in Canada and will start looking at other geographies once Facebook gets adequate feedback from Canadian users.

We’ll have more details in just a few minutes; stay tuned!

Spare a thought for the telcos – they’ve had a hard couple of years fighting off VoIP vendors such as Microsoft’s Skype and New York-based Viber, which use the telcos’ networks while directly competing with their services. Now a new player has arrived, and it’s going to challenge both the telcos and the VoIP vendors. It’s called WebRTC.

WebRTC is a technology that lets developers build real-time communication into web pages. While it’s going to affect the telcos, it’s actually the VoIP vendors who now face the real danger, because it brings down the VoIP players’ protective subscription walls. (For example, Skype users can only talk with other Skype users for free).

WebRTC offers a lot of interesting use cases, but they essentially boil down to five:

1. Friends and family calls to people we know. Today VoIP vendors are finding it easy to supplant telcos in this market, where the phone number and address book are replaced with a buddy list and presence indications.

2. Consumer to business calls. In most cases, these calls require a phone number, and as such, pass through a telco’s voice network. VoIP  players don’t have large presence in this space, since it requires the ubiquity and openness of a telco voice service.

3. Business to consumer calls. Whether it’s a call from the kindergarden telling you your child isn’t feeling well, or a telemarketer trying to sell a magazine subscription, these calls again go to the telco’s phone numbering system.

4. Within a business organization. Telcos and VoIPs both still have a foot in this market.

5. Business partners. Calls between organizations tend to take place on a telco’s network. VoIP players usually don’t allow calling outside the boundary of their own user base unless that call is routed to a telco for their own monetization purposes.

Right now, most of a VoIP player’s users and calls comes from the user’s close contacts: friends and family. These are also the people the user is most likely to interact with on social networks. And while players like Skype rely on people having to download the application first in order to use the service, social networks live natively in the web.

Now that WebRTC has arrived, will VoIP players be the ones adopting it wholeheartedly, or will social networks be first to integrate it into their services?

Put simply: How much will Skype be hurting when Facebook comes up with its own video chat service, based on WebRTC?

Skype’s main asset is the large user base already using it for voice and video communications, with 700 million voice and video minutes a day spent by 65 million users who sign in to the service daily.

On the other hand, people spend over 13 billion minutes a day on Facebook (that’s 7:45 hours a month per person with over 900 million monthly active users).

Which smartphone app is more popular? Facebook has both its main Facebook app and Facebook Messenger app (a direct contender to Skype text chatting) ahead of Skype’s app on the iTunes Charts (29 and 35 in comparison to Skype’s number 52 spot in August 2012). On Google Play’s top Free list, Facebook takes first place while Skype is in seventh.

While Skype is smaller than Facebook, its sole focus is real-time communications. It knows the market and the technology better. The only problem is that today it is almost considered an incumbent player and not a market disruptor. It has been slow to introduce new features and capabilities in the past year or two, while Facebook has been evolving and growing almost on a daily basis.

Facebook’s popularity and positioning is bound to give it a head start in changing users’ behavior – we are already used to sharing on Facebook. A lot of us are texting each other through Facebook’s messaging capabilities, so voice and video chatting isn’t far fetched.

From there, offering a Facebook-Out service, click-to-call ads, or a solution that enables people to interact with companies through their pages on Facebook isn’t such a massive step – and critically, it allows Facebook to monetize such a solution.

So if Facebook decides to go it alone with real-time communications and integrate WebRTC into its social network infrastructure, where would that leave Skype? Michelle Maisto on eWeek is right: Facebook could be a Skype killer.

Tsahi Levent-Levi has almost 15 years of experience in the telecommunications, VoIP, and 3G industry as an engineer, manager, marketer, and CTO. He is currently Director of Business Solutions at Amdocs and is responsible for focusing on new and innovative ways carriers can bring value and relevance to their customers. He is a frequent industry blogger on Amdocs Voices, as well as his own blog: BlogGeek.me.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Teleconferencing is broken, and Craig Walker wants to be the man to change that.

Walker is the entrepreneur behind GrandCentral Communications (now Google Voice), Dialpad (now Yahoo Voice), the chief executive of product accelerator Firespotter Labs, and the first entrepreneur-in-residence at Google Ventures. (And he’s also an attorney!) Frankly, if his next venture were an Alpaca farm, he’d still be fighting off investors with a stick.

ÜberConference, the startup that claims to be “teleconferencing done right,” has already raised $18 million from Google Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. Today, the free audio conferencing service has announced the public launch of its beta and its new premium service for business users. The startup, which will shortly be relocating to San Francisco, has been gathering steam with its beta product earning the top prize at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012.

“Our goal with ÜberConference from the get-go was to solve the biggest pain-points of conference calls,” Walker told me. Among them, that eight-digit long PIN, no frame of reference for who’s on the call, and a lack of recording capabilities.

On an ÜberConference with its cofounder, I could browse his LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, and Facebook profiles via the visual dashboard (it won’t take you to any external web pages), which provided background for those hard-hitting interview questions. It’s bit distracting, but it’s far better than having to frantically search for information about who’s on the call if you’re unprepared or there’s a less minute addition to the conference.

For Walker, the visual dashboard is the value proposition. “Audio-conferencing has been ignored features-wise for the last 30 years,” he said. The team is constantly updating the product — they recently had an idea for an “earmuffs” feature, which lets you click on participants’ featured photos to mute them, so you can enjoy a private chat.

The premium version, also launching today, is available for $10 per month. It includes:

• Access to local area codes: If you prefer to have a conference line with a local phone number, virtually every area code is supported.
• Increased conference size: Up to 40 participants can dial-in.
• Recurring conference calls: Ideal to schedule those weekly, bi-weekly or monthly calls.
• Outbound dialing: Simply pick up your phone to access the meeting. This removes the need for a dial-in altogether.
• …and a personal favorite: Customizable hold music! No more of those horrendous Kenny G-esque tunes. Also, because it’s awesome, check out Firespotter cofounder Alex Cornell’s “I’m on hold” song.
• Evernote integration: Also available on the free version.

With its premium product, ÜberConference is gearing up for an enterprise push. Similarly to companies like Dropbox, it’s hedging its bets on the “consumerization of the enterprise” trend. Rather than convincing IT to make the switch from legacy vendors, they’re hoping that employees will use ÜberConference in their personal and professional lives, which won’t go unnoticed by key decision-makers.

They’re also not ready yet for this kind of push as there is no enterprise-wide billing system. Going forward, however, ÜberConference is planning to expand marketing and sales team. No doubt, wide-spread enterprise adoption is a major part of how the company plans to make money in the long-term.

Walker told me that ÜberConference is well-positioned to conquer the space due to its “deep, close relationships with providers and carriers,” from his Google Voice days. He doesn’t view the legacy vendors as competition due to their high price. However, ÜberConference will increasingly be up against Microsoft Lync, Cisco’s Webex, and others, once it moves into the enterprise.

ÜberConference is currently available on the web, with a mobile version under development. Check out the video about the new features for the pro version, narrated to you in a posh-sounding, British accent.

Photo credit: Barnaby Kerr Photography

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Skype is making a few key additions with version 4.1 of its apps for the iPad and iPhone.

First, the apps will finally let users share photos with contacts. This is a feature already present in the desktop version of Skype, and it will be a welcome addition to the iOS offerings. Skype says there’s no limit on file size, which it hopes will be reason enough for users to stop sending photos through their phone’s messaging services and use Skype instead.

The update comes a few months after Skype released version 4.0 of its app, which added a variety of interface enhancements.

Along with photo sharing, Skype has also tweaked the performance of the apps so that they are less demanding on batteries. The company wants Skype running on users’ devices nonstop, so making the apps less power-hungry means more users will keep them open.

Lastly, Skype is making sure the apps load faster, which should make it easier for users to resume their conversations if the apps crash.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

While consumers are flocking to services like Skype to chat with friends and family internationally for free, there’s still a huge market for international calling, according to the latest survey sponsored by the voice-over-IP company Rebtel.

Among U.S. adults who own a smartphone, 21 percent (around 20 million people) say they make international calls, and they end up spending around $37.8 billion every year, the survey finds.

On average, smartphone owners who call internationally spend $156 a month doing so (women spend $267.10 on international calls every month, compared to just $85.50 for men). There’s no breakdown on if people are spending more in VoIP apps on international calls than their standard calling plan, but the real takeaway is  there’s still plenty of demand for traditional international calling.

Not everyone has a PC, smartphone, or tablet to get free Skype to Skype calls, after all. Even with Skype, you have to pay to call a standard international telephone number. Ultimately, the survey show’s there’s huge potential for companies that cater to international callers.

The survey was conducted online by the market research firm Harris Interactive based on responses from 2,211 adults over 18 (notably, participants weren’t randomly selected, so we can only read so much into their findings).

Other interesting findings: 35 percent of American adults who own a tablet and smartphone say they use VoIP apps for international calls; 29 percent of women expected to spend more on their cellphone bills this year, compared to 9 percent of men; and Hispanic Americans spent less than African Americans on international calls ($144 compared to $206).

Airport phone call photo via Shutterstock

A 30-second call using Skype in Ethiopia can land you a 15-year prison sentence, thanks to new legislation passed by the country’s government.

The new legislation will criminalize the use of all Voice Over IP (VoIP) services, such as Skype or Google Voice, from within the country, according to an Al Jazeera report. The legislation, which was voted into law last month with little notice from international media, seems to close a loophole that was allowing some of its citizens to communicate without being monitored by authorities.

The country’s sole communication infrastructure is operated by government-run telecom Ethio Teleco. The new legislation empowers the state-owned telecom to prohibit the use not only of VoIP services, but also of video chatting, social media, e-mail, and any other data transfer service capable of communicating information. So that encompass pretty much all communication except for speaking aloud and talking within your own mind.

The law also gives the government the right to inspect any imported voice communication equipment as well as the power to ban any inbound packages that don’t have prior permission from the state, according to the Al Jazeera report.

Anyone in the country who uses an illegal phone service will face up to 15 years in jail and heavy fines. Making a phone call over the Internet is punishable by 3 to 8 years in prison plus fines. Ethio Teleco also recently installed a  system for blocking access to the Tor network that users browse anonymously and access blocked websites, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Ethiopian authorities claim the drastic measures called for under the new law are necessary to protect against security threats. However, African Review notes that observers are saying the law is instead aimed at limiting freedom of expression and the flow of information between the nation’s 85 million people.

Via TechCrunch

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Building on its voice-over-IP calling empire, Rebtel announced today that its VoIP app is now available for the iPad.

Rebtel has become a popular solution for consumers who want to make cheap phone calls — the company revealed today that it now has more than 17 million users, up from 15 million in February. Rebtel’s apps allow for free calling to other Rebtel users, as well as cheap calls to landlines and mobile phones.

The company is now seeing more than 1 billion minutes worth of calls every year, and it’s growing by 650,000 users a month, CEO Andreas Bernstrom told VentureBeat in an interview. He predicts an $85 million revenue run rate for 2012, based on the company’s current success this year.

“We are squarely in the middle of the post-PC era, marked by an increasing amount of consumers who have leapfrogged the classic desktop PC in favor of multi-purpose mobile devices that allow for greater creativity and social interaction,” Bernstrom said in a statement today. “We are excited to expand our development pipeline to respond to this growing global demand for tablets and iPads.”

Rebtel’s apps have the unique ability to let you hop between data and voice connections to avoid network congestion — something that other VoIP services like Skype sorely lack. Data networks are typically unreliable for long phone calls, so Rebtel developed a “KeepTalking” feature to let you continue a call over your voice network instead of dealing with spotty data reception.

The Swedish company has spent considerable funds and effort setting up the infrastructure for its service. Bernstrom told us previously that it brought in $20 million worth of financing from Benchmark Capital and Index Ventures in 2006 to build a system that could connect with operators around the world and terminate voice calls in any country. During 2011, the company put together the data side of its infrastructure, including codecs and stacks to carry voice over data connections.

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The company has identified  four main problems with teleconferences. First, of course, there’s dealing with the conference number itself, and then the authentication PIN number. Then there’s the problem of determining who is on the call, and the related issue — particularly on conference calls with larger groups — of knowing who is speaking. And finally, there’s the noise that inevitably interrupts when too many people are on speakerphone, or are taking the call in a busy location.

UberConference allows teleconferencers to dial a number (no PIN required), see who is calling in, and determine who is currently talking. The organizer can instantly tell when one or more participants are causing feedback or noise, and mute them. The organizer can even cut select participants out of sections of the call (UberConference calls it “earmuffing”) if needed for confidentiality reasons.

A particularly helpful feature is the ability to click on a participant and see their social overview, taken from popular networks: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. That’s a feature I’ve wanted often enough on calls with participants from multiple divisions or companies.

Currently, UberConference is free, but in the future the company will “offer a premium version of the service with more features and different pricing options.” The interface is simple and gorgeous, although you wonder how well it would scale for very large conference calls.

Walker is a serial entrepreneur. After selling GrandCentral to Google in 2007 for around $50 million, turning that service into Google Voice, and then spending some time as entrepreneur-in-residence at Google Ventures, Walker left Google in mid-2011. He has not gone far, however; the incubator behind UberVoice, Firespotter Labs, is funded by Google Ventures.

GrandCentral was not Walker’s first internet telephony service, nor his first sale to an internet giant. Walker also ran DialPad in in the early 2000s, selling it to Yahoo in 2005. Obviously he can’t stay away from the telephony space.

Here’s a humorous look at the rational behind UberConference:

And, a more sober overview of the service itself:

Photo credit: Barnaby Kerr Photography

Twilio has finally released its Android client with a new native software development kit that will allow Android developers to add VoIP features to any Android app.

The startup’s iOS client has been around since February, and today, Android developers are basically getting the same set of tools — tools that allow you to easily make voice calls a feature, if not necessarily the main event, of your application. You can use the Twilio client on any existing Android app, or you can use it to build a new app from scratch.

(And yes — we can smell the Twilio Android/mobile hackathon coming already. These days, you can’t throw a rock in San Francisco on a weekend and not hit a hackathon, and Twilio’s last hackathon went pretty well. Stay tuned for more on that this fall, when the startup will host its second conference.)

Features for the Android version of the client include voice calling on any Android device with a data connection, tap-to-call capabilities, analytics, and feedback from voice calls.

Twilio first introduced this concept (voice features with minimal code) almost one year ago for web developers. At that time, Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson told VentureBeat, “The existing telephony network is a big dumb audiopipe. … Skype is obviously amazing and transformed the way people interact, but Skype is only one client. We want to make that available for millions of developers.”

Since then, the company has been earning rave reviews from developers and has leveraged its hacker street cred into $17 million from Silicon Valley’s finest VCs.

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July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Bree Olson made hundreds of porn movies in her career until she got mixed up with Charlie Sheen and retired from the business last year. But she still has 360,000 Twitter followers and fans galore. Now she is going to be able to charge those fans money to have one-on-one conversations with her, thanks to internet voice technology from Verified Call.

In a rare partnership between an adult entertainer and Silicon Valley, Olson (pictured above) has signed on to provide celebrity endorsement for Verified Call. In return, she gets a way to interact one-on-one with her fans in a secure fashion — and she also picks up some stock options in Verified Call.

With Verified Call, fans can place direct and anonymous voice-over-internet calls to Olson, without needing to know her phone number. Olson can charge for the call — her going rate is $8.99 a minute — and fans can pay directly with their phones or PayPal with a simple verification process. Olson simply embeds the Verified Call icon within her web site, BreeOlson.com (NSFW). Fans click on it, and enter their phone numbers. Within 15 seconds, Verified Call places a call to both the fan and Olson, who can indicate whether she wants to take calls or not. The system immediately bills the caller for a given number of minutes that the customer chooses, then the call goes through. The system can also schedule calls for later.

“I can post to Twitter and say I’m ready to take calls,” Olson said in an interview with VentureBeat. “It’s a new generation of simplicity for me. I’m an Apple fan and I like this clean design and an easy user interface. It’s very classy and easy for both parties.”

For fans, it’s a chance for an “intimate,” one-on-one conversation with a celebrity. For an entertainer like Olson, it’s a safe system where she doesn’t have to give out her phone number, and it’s more manageable than a computer webcam, where she would have to sit in front of her computer. With the phone, she could have a chat with a fan — and make money from it — while stuck in a traffic jam.

“I like it because I’ve been curious about who some of the fans are,” Olson said. “I can tweet when I want to take a call. Most of the webcams are huge chat rooms and the guys don’t really get to say anything. It’s one-sided. This is so personal.”

This Silicon Valley-meets-entertainer meme seems like it’s becoming more common. The adult industry has always been an early adopter of technology, from the VCR to DVDs to the internet. But recently even mainstream stars have gotten in on the Silicon Valley action. Ashton Kutcher, for example, has embraced technology and even invested in a wide variety of startups.

Vogner mentioned that uber angel investor Ron Conway is a star who should charge $500 per hour or more for his advice. Olson said, “I would pay $500 to talk to him! I love the tech scene.”

You can kind of think of Verified Call as a tool for 21st-century celebrity life management. Olson, who has given up porn to focus on a mainstream acting career, still has lots of fans and she likes the idea of using technology to stay in touch with them. (To be fair, her website still shows plenty of skin, and she’s continuing to make money on the 230 adult films she made during her career, and her work is all over the internet.) She has been on Twitter for five years and has a crazy-active channel on YouTube (officialbreeolson9) with videos like “Naked for Kony 2012,” which has more than 600,000 views.

Verified Call started with a focus on web-based conference calls. But the team evolved the system to focus on one-on-one conversations. And it built the technology to include individual accounts, promotion, billing, and scheduling.

Vogner (pictured on the left) met Olson at the AVN Awards, the Oscars of adult films, in Las Vegas earlier this year. Olson, who vaulted into broader celebrity fame after she had a relationship with actor Charlie Sheen, hosted the show and Verified Call showed up to target adult performers with its technology.

“After five minutes of talking, we both knew we wanted to work together,” Vogner said. “Bree has hundreds of thousands of conversations in her lifetime. To not be able to monetize that is a shame.”

The system isn’t just for porn stars, or retired ones. Lawyers, psychiatrists, and any other people who bill by the minute can adopt the system.

“Our first customers were attorneys because they are accustomed to charging for time,” Vogner said. “This is classy too because you won’t find a list of hundreds of people to call on our web site. This is a link that goes directly into Bree’s own page.”

At first, Olson will take calls for at least an hour a week. In that one hour, she could earn $539. Vogner says that if Verified Call can get a couple of hundred celebrity users, it will have a nice business that will generate a lot of its own publicity.

“There’s a gap in the market for professionals and entertainers who can monetize their interactions with customers and fans,” Vogner said. “For the fans, this is a lot better than getting an autograph.”

As an advisor for Verified Call, Olson is also providing help to help refine Verified Call’s features. She wants the company to add a bidding system where the highest-bidding caller wins out when lots of people want to talk to her at once. The billing is set up to prevent billing disputes; if Olson hangs up on the caller before the paid time limit is reached, the caller isn’t charged. But if the caller hangs up first, then the caller is charged. If weirdos call, Olson can hang up. And those callers can be banned from placing requests for call backs in the future. Webcam software and Skype don’t have such features such as the billing mechanisms.

Verified Call is self-funded and was founded by Vogner, a former vice president at Match.com and an early contributor at SFGate.com, in 2011. The company has six employees, not counting Olson. Rivals include traditional computer webcam services and My Phone Site. Olson didn’t like the video on webcams because “people don’t realize that us girls don’t look perfect all of the time.”

“This way, I can say I’m free and talk to respectful fans who are curious about talking to someone like me,” Olson said. “My adult entertainment fans have transitioned over with me on the mainstream side, with comedy roles. And I’m gaining a whole new set of fans. They are generally interested in my day-to-day life. I never thought people would be interested if I said was visiting San Francisco. They want to talk about anything.”

[Photo credit: Dean Takahashi]

You have a video conferencing system in the office. You know you should probably get around to actually, you know, using it. But much like the exercise equipment you received for Christmas, it is still in the box. Or perhaps, IT set one up three months ago but your employees are still calling clients long-distance instead of using it for product demonstrations.

So, what’s the best way to get into the habit of adding a video conference to your daily routine? Well, first make sure you’ve got the five tips below covered, and then jump in and start scheduling video conferences. Once you’ve taken care of these basic hurdles, it should be much smooth sailing.

1. Set Up a Dedicated Space: …but embrace mobile opportunities. In the office, find a space to set up the video conferencing system so you can test it thoroughly, train employees on it, and access it easily at any time. However, part of the benefit of video conferencing is that it can be done from anywhere — and will sometimes need to be done from less-than desirable locations (in an airport from a laptop, for example). Make sure your in-house set up is running smoothly, then ensure you have a mobile component in place for traveling employees to dial in.

2. Invest in the Experience: Trying to cut corners on cost here will do you no favors in the long run: Make sure you’re working with solid equipment, from mics and cables to webcams and Internet connections. Likewise, pay attention to audio quality during your test runs: Is the mic too close to a keyboard? Is there a delay before you hear audio? Fine tune the system, upgrading or adjusting as necessary so you can have a good quality experience.

3. Look for Opportunities: Perhaps a member of your team is stuck at home waiting for a repairman, or you’d like to give a product tour to a new client — in Tokyo. Maybe you’d just like to give your system a solid run-through after a new software upgrade. Does your IM program integrate with video? There’s another opportunity to video chat instead. The more you identify places where you can use video conferencing, the more everyone can practice using it and thereby, become more comfortable with it. And practice what you preach: upper management should use video conferencing whenever possible in order to lead by example.

4. Inform the Team: Employees are generally more receptive to ideas when they understand the motivation behind them, so make sure you’re clear on why you’d like to incorporate more video conferencing and how you intend the company — and staff — to benefit. Perhaps you’re trying to cut travel expenses, or have better communication with off-site employees. Additionally, it will help ease anxieties if you are clear about the rules you expect employees to follow while video conferencing i.e. no texting while conferencing, don’t be late, schedule in advance, be prepared, etc.

5. Provide Training: A lot of the hesitation around video conferencing comes from intimidation over complicated conferencing systems that require multiple calls to an IT department to get running. However, with the variety of VoIP services, smart phone apps, and video-based web services, video conferencing is becoming increasingly painless. Providing a clear set of instructions on how to access and run all video conferencing technology (be it hardware or software, or both) can give employees a quick reference while they become accustomed to using the technology. Also, make sure there is someone available should employees have questions or run into difficulties.

Video call image via ShutterStock

Skype hit a new milestone Monday when 35 million people accessed its audio and video conferencing service at the same time.

The achievement comes just one week after the belated beta release of Skype for Windows Phone.

The Microsoft-owned VoIP product has been impressively growing concurrent user numbers in recent weeks. Skype had 32 million people sign in at the same time for the first time on Feb. 23, a figure that was soon outdated when it hit 34 million concurrent Skypers the following week.

In June, Microsoft acquired Skype for $8.5 billion and promised deep integration with its existing products, including the Windows Phone operating system and the Xbox 360 gaming console. The deal closed in October. The expressed commitment from its new owners to improve and expand the popular communications offering is still a promise in the making, but Microsoft’s backing does appear to be giving people more confidence in the service.

Photo credit: spieri_sf/Flickr

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

If you are a struggling artist or developer working on the next great mobile app, you need a strategy for drawing in users.

Keep in mind that buying traffic to convert to users doesn’t always add up. Developing for the mobile platform is vastly different from e-commerce, where the potential average revenue per user (ARPU) is considerably smaller, and in many cases non-existent. At the same time, there’s a limited amount of advertising inventory, and discoverability remains poor.

If you’re considering buying downloads, today’s cost per download (CPD) rates range from $1 to $2, which means it would cost you $10 million to $20 million to buy 10 million to 20 million downloads, which is the current benchmark figure for a successful app.

One way of getting around this is to optimize heavily for organic growth without trying to reinvent the “social graph wheel.” There are already existing, sizable social graphs (like Facebook), and using them will save you time and money

So what’s the trick to get the right kind of growth without breaking the bank? Here are four key tips for taking your app platinum.

Think big

The app you build needs to have huge consumer appeal and real world value. A great example is Onavo. In the face of ever-increasing data charges and operators transitioning to tiered pricing, Onavo takes a unique approach to help customers get the most of their plans. Once installed, the app compresses data to allow users to double or triple their existing data plan. The service claims it can help users save up to 80 percent of their data, which in turn saves them money.

Focus on design and usability

At the end of the day, nothing beats great design and usability. There are over 1 million apps in the iTunes App Store and Android Marketplace for consumers to navigate, so how do you know when your app is ready to test the waters? To stand out you not only need to look great, but have an intuitive user interface (UI) and be responsive. Even the smallest user experience improvements can have an enormous impact on your download figures. Check out Pinterest, the hot virtual pinboard. It has a graphic-intense UI, easy log in procedure, and a great design. With 10 million unique users and a site that drives more traffic than LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google+ combined, it’s a great case study on how to make a product stand out.

Add a social and viral component

Social and viral are two much-touted words, and they are the keys for creating successful mobile applications. What better way to ensure you build up a large user base than to get your users to build it for you? Make it simple for people to invite and share with friends, position your application as a specialty product that allows for self-expression, and be sure to leverage existing social graphs for distribution. For instance, imagine where Instagram would be without the integration of existing social networks. Communication apps are also great examples of this. See Voxer, or my own company Rebtel which has benefited tremendously from over 70 percent of our users coming from referral from current users and word of mouth.

Test your app, iterate on it, and test it again

There’s probably no better way to develop a great app than to listen to your users. At the same time, there has to be a balance, as most of the time, users don’t know what they truly want or need until you show it to them. Product testing and soliciting user feedback can make a good product great, and a great product even better. And don’t be afraid if you need to redesign or re-engineer your product; just be sure to move fast when you do.

The bottom line for any developer is, just like the record industry, you can’t buy platinum hit on mobile. So build something with real value, with a great user interface and user experience, and something that proves that the more people use it, the more valuable it becomes.

Lastly, make it easy to share and (if possible) a part of that users’ everyday life. You also need listen to your users and iterate fast, or another product can swiftly gain traction on you. If you do all these things then you have a chance to succeed.

Remember, securing a smash hit on mobile can be hard, but with a great team, some help from smart PR pros, and a little dash of the X-factor sprinkled in, you’ll be more than ready to satisfy even the toughest of critics.

Andreas Bernstrom is the CEO at Rebtel, the largest mobile VoIP provider after Skype (based on revenue). Prior to Rebtel, the Goldman Sachs alum was COO of Taptu, a leading UK-based mobile search engine, and TradeDoubler, Europe’s leading performance based marketing company.

VentureBeat is holding its second annual Mobile Summit this April 2-3 in Sausalito, Calif. The invitation-only event will debate the five key business and technology challenges facing the mobile industry today, and participants — 180 mobile executives, investors, and policymakers — will develop concrete, actionable solutions that will shape the future of the mobile industry. You can find out more at our Mobile Summit site.

User growth image via ShutterStock

The company says that it has surpassed 15 million connected users (it’s unclear how many of those are active) since its launch in 2006. Rebtel users have made over 500 million calls on the service and have chalked up over two billion minutes of international calls.

Rebtel offers mobile and desktop PC apps that let its users call each other for free, or make inexpensive calls to international numbers. The company’s service is also accessible through any landline or mobile phone without an app. Rebtel just recently released version 2.0 of its iPhone app, which added a first-ever feature to let you hop between voice and data networks during a call.

Not only is Rebtel growing quickly, the company boasts that its average revenue per user (ARPU) is triple Skype’s. Skype now sees a monthly ARPU of $8 per month, while Rebtel’s ARPU is $24. The company increased its revenue by more than 55 percent last year to reach $60 million, and it expects to earn $95 million in 2012.

The Swedish company has spent considerable funds and effort setting up the infrastructure for its service. CEO Andreas Bernstrom told us previously that it brought in $20 million worth of financing from Benchmark Capital and Index Ventures in 2006 to build a system that could connect with operators around the world and terminate voice calls in any country. During 2011, the company put together the data side of its infrastructure, including codecs and stacks to carry voice over data connections.

VoIP call photo via Shutterstock

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

VoIP startup Vonage has launched new applications for iOS and Android phones that feature free app-to-app calling and international calling rates that run 30 percent less than rival Skype, the company announced today.

Vonage has made itself known as the company you subscribe to for cheap unlimited calling for your home phone, but it makes good sense for the company to branch out with strong mobile apps as well. The company offered a few apps before, but the new offerings are more fully featured and easier on the eyes.

The new apps for iOS and Android let you call and text other Vonage Mobile users or call Vonage VoIP home and business users for free. When you want to call non-Vonage customers in the U.S. and overseas, the company says you’ll pay 30 percent less than you would with Skype.

Calls are charged through pre-paid credits you buy inside the applications, and you don’t have to be a Vonage customer to use the apps. You can use your iTunes or Android Market account to add $4.99 or $9.99 credit packs, you won’t have to give the company your credit card info.

To get people interested in downloading and testing the app, the company is offering free calls to any phone in the U.S., Canada or Puerto Rico for a limited time. So if you’ve been meaning to give your friend in Ontario a call for free, this is your chance.

If you’re already using Skype for international calling on your iPhone or Android device, would you be willing to give Vonage a spin?

Battlefield 3 launched in Oct 2011, and voice chat for most PS3 users has been consistently choppy and unusable, until now. With over 4 million PS3 copies of the game having been sold worldwide, this issue has affected a lot of gamers, who will be pleased to now see it resolved.

Patching games after release has become standard practice for developers in recent years, but this is not always of benefit to the gaming community. Often games appear to be rushed out to meet release dates, while still containing potentially game-breaking bugs and glitches. In the case of BF3, many players feel that DICE and publisher Electronic Arts pushed the game out too early, in an attempt to better compete with rival first person shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

I can personally testify that the 11MB patch, v1.03, has cleared up the voice chat issues with the game. This has also been confirmed by various players who have posted on the EA forums. Both squad and team chat now seem to be working well.

There are other gameplay balancing issues that are expected to be addressed by DICE this month, but the patch released today seems to only be a voice chat fix.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Playstation 3 gamers can breath a sigh of relief today, as Electronic Arts’ DICE officially confirmed that a patch to fix long running Battlefield 3 voice chat problems is incoming.

PS3 users have been reporting issues with the voice chat functionality in Battlefield 3 since the Beta rolled out, back in September 2011. The full game saw the same problems occurring, but despite developer DICE saying that looking at the issue was a top priority, there had been no official confirmation of a fix, until now.

Speaking on the Battlefield 3 Battlelog forum earlier today , DICE Junior Product Manager Tommy Rydling confirmed that, “We have a fix on its way for the VOIP [voice over internet protocol] issue that some Battlefield 3 players have experienced on PS3.”

Rydling said to expect the patch that will clear up this problem “soon”, and told BF3 players to stay tuned for the exact timing.

There had been talk in various quarters that the voice chat problems on PS3, which manifest themselves as broken, stuttered speech, especially when more than two people are communicating at once, would be unfixable. The small amount of RAM (512MB) on board the PS3 had been cited as a possible cause for the problem, especially given that this is the reason cross game chat has never been implemented on the console.

This official confirmation from DICE that the voice chat fixing patch is finally on its way, should be a great relief to the huge numbers of PS3 gamers that have been affected. It will certainly be a lot easier to play a team based first person shooter, when the team can effectively communicate.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Fueled by disruption on several fronts, 2012 will see some major mobile industry consolidation, as well as mobile VoIP services’ lasting impact on carriers and more options on data pricing plans for consumers.

Over the course of 2011, the mobile industry has been a year of mixed emotions. It has witnessed dynamic changes and suffered tragic losses, such as the launch of the iPhone 4S and death of Steve Jobs. We’ve also seen the emergence of video calling, and the rapid mainstream adoption of not only iPads, but tablets in general .

At the same time, there’s been unprecedented growth in the sector. According to IDC, early year estimates predicted that the smartphone market would grow nearly 50% globally in 2011, jumping from approximately 300 million shipments in 2010, to 450 million by 2011.

This, coupled with the rise of mobile commerce as a main market driver, and it’s really no wonder why many feel that this past year has been the year of mobile.

Looking ahead to 2012, there’s guaranteed to be some big surprises lurking in the shadows. Here’s what I believe will be some of the top headlines you’ll see in the coming year:

Microsoft buys Spotify, goes head to head with iTunes

All the speculation and rumors you heard will end up coming to fruition. In 2012, we will see Spotify
become a separate division within Microsoft to compete head on with iTunes. Microsoft has long wanted a pure music play and Spotify delivers an active, engaged audience of more than 2.5 million paying subscribers and a total users base of more than 10 million. With Zune all but prospering, look for Spotify to be bundled with Windows 8 as well as of course Windows Mobile 7.

Also, not to be neglected, is the common lineage between the two. The Swedish music streaming giant already has a pre-existing (and successful) partnership with Microsoft-affiliated social networking giant Facebook. In 2007, Microsoft partook in one of Facebook’s fund raising rounds and took a $240 million equity stake in the company at a valuation of $15 billion.

As a complement to its other properties, Spotify will continue to flourish within the Microsoft domain and it’s likely we’ll see it integrated into the Xbox Live platform alongside Skype and in a new version of Microsoft’s product suite. Microsoft will benefit enormously from a brand aspect and have a new asset to monetize its existing customer base with.

Mobile VoIP growth makes dramatic impact on operators

Next year will see the tipping point for true mVoIP (mobile Voice over IP). With 4G finally rolled out across the U.S. and technology improvements from companies like Rebtel and Viber, dropped calls will become a thing of the past. mVoIP will therefore go from being a fad, to something that is embraced beyond the digerati, and finally catching on with the mainstream.

Juniper reports that mobile VoIP clients downloaded to the smartphone will account for four fifths of 640 million mVoIP users by the end of 2016, while alliances between carriers and mVoIP specialists will remain relatively few in number. In the short term, operators will respond with their own services, partnerships with over-the-top (OTT) service providers and following on more rumors of consolidation, eventually buying them.

Google to spin-off Motorola

After purchasing Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in August, Google will spin-off the company in an attempt to save face with other handset manufacture partners like HTC and Samsung and remedy the risk of them leaving the Android eco-system in favor for Windows Mobile 7. In what will basically amount to a patent acquisition deal, Google will share patents with their OEM partners to allow for more direct competition with Apple.

(Maybe not such a surprising move after all, considering research firm Canalys recently shared that Android captures nearly 50% of the global smartphone market?)

Also, look for Google TV to jump back in the spotlight with Motorola poised to offer Google TV-enabled set-top boxes and cable providers jumping on board to compete with streaming providers such as Netflix.

Carriers forced to transition to tiered data plans

Some research firms have already predicted that the role of voice within the broader communications market will change substantially over the next few years, especially as it appears to be headed into integration with other applications.

To save customer churn, carriers will begin to offer tiered data plans to cope with the ever-increasing network strain and alleviate their reliance on voice revenue. In the transition process to tiered data, a portion of consumers are likely to initially be averse to the shift. We might even see this lead to a brief period of less data consumption on mobile devices due to a fear of being charged high per MB if they go over the their limit. Over time however, tiered pricing will be for the better, as it will facilitate a better and sustainable user experience by way of a model that makes sense from an economical perspective for the operators.

More carriers offering alternative pricing models and packages to stay competitive should turn out to be a big win for the consumer over the next 12 months.

Andreas is CEO of Rebtel, the world’s largest independent mobile VoIP company. Prior to Rebtel, Andreas was COO of Taptu, UK-based mobile search engine, and previous to that he was COO of TradeDoubler, a digital marketing and technology company. Previous to these positions, Andreas spent three years at Goldman Sachs.

Google launched calling to standard phones from the Gmail interface in August 2010 and has kept it as an option ever since. This past August, the company expanded calling from Gmail to support 38 languages and four payment currencies.

While domestic calls to people in the U.S. and Canada are free, international calls will cost, with pricing starting at $0.02 a minute. The most expensive rates in Google’s list for straight-up calling appear to be for Antarctica at $2 a minute. Callers, if they want, can also link this to a free Google Voice account to get inbound calls.

In light of Google adding voice calling to Google+ Hangouts just a few weeks ago, the move to keep free calling in Gmail isn’t terribly surprising. That new feature handily lets you rope a non-Google+ user into a Google+-powered meeting or conference call.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Voice-over-IP company Rebtel announced version 2.0 of its iPhone app today, and it sports a unique feature: the ability to easily move between WiFi/data networks and voice networks during VoIP calls.

The network-hopping feature, dubbed KeepTalking, allows VoIP callers to continue a call on a voice network if they notice their WiFi or data network degrading. This solves a major problem facing many VoIP users, who want to make free or cheap calls using data networks, but who sometimes find that those networks aren’t as robust as their carrier’s voice network.

As with the original iPhone app, and Rebtel’s other apps on Android and BlackBerry, the new app lets you make free calls to other Rebtel users around the world. The company also offers extremely cheap rates for calls to international numbers.

To use the KeepTalking feature, you simply hit the appropriate button (see picture, right) while in the middle of a call. CEO Andreas Bernstrom tells me that it typically takes around two seconds for a call to switch over to a voice connection, at which point the app will use your cellular voice minutes. With KeepTalking, you’ll still be able to make free international calls to Rebtel users.

The Swedish company has spent considerable funds and effort setting up the infrastructure for its service. Bernstrom tells me it brought in $20 million worth of financing from Benchmark Capital and Index Ventures in 2006 to build a system that could connect with operators around the world and terminate voice calls in any country. Over the last nine months, the company put together the data side of its infrastructure, including codecs and stacks to carry voice over data connections.

Rebtel is the world’s second-largest mobile VoIP company (behind Skype), with 13 million connected users. The company says that 90 percent of its users make calls from its mobile apps and that it expects to hit 1 billion call minutes during 2011. It has 70 employees, most of whom are app and VoIP developers.

The company says the KeepTalking feature will reach its Android app in about a month. It’s already available on the Windows Rebtel application.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Sometimes, just “liking” a friend’s Facebook update isn’t enough. That’s when a good old-fashioned voice call is in order.

Today, T-Mobile is expanding its efforts to let you call your Facebook friends for free with the launch of its new Bobsled VoIP apps on iOS, Android, and the web.

The new apps greatly increase the presence of T-Mobile’s Bobsled service, which launched back in April on Facebook as a way to easily call your friends on the social network. And as an extra nicety, the Bobsled web app also allows you to call any phone number in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico for free from your desktop browser.

There are already plenty of mobile VoIP offerings available, including Rebtel and Viber, but Bobsled is the first to be solely devoted to letting you chat with your Facebook followers. That may ultimately help the Bobsled apps become more widely adopted, especially among teens and users who keep a close watch on their monthly cellular voice minutes.

Just as with the original Facebook Bobsled app, the new apps are also powered by Vivox’s VoiceEverywhere service. T-Mobile has previously said that it plans to integrate video chat into Bobsled as well.

The company claims that it’s the first major VoIP company to offer effective wireless access. Previously, customers had to connect Ooma’s VoIP box physically to their router, which greatly limited where they could keep their home phones.

The wireless adapter could help Ooma, which has garnered a considerable amount of hype over the last few years, and raised more than $50 million in funding, to attract even more users. It utilizes Ooma’s PureVoice HD technology to avoid call degradation, thanks to “advanced voice compression and adaptive redundancy”, the company said in its release today.

Ooma is now on its second-generation VoIP box, the Ooma Telo, which launched earlier this year. Ooma’s wireless adapter also allows the Telo to function as a wireless bridge, which lets devices without wireless connections connect to the box to access the Internet. That could be useful consumers with game consoles or Blu-ray players that lack wireless access.

The company also announced today that it will now offer its Bluetooth adapter, which lets consumers answer cellular calls on Ooma’s system, to all customers for $30. Previously, only the company’s premium subscribers, who pay $10 a month for additional features, had access to the Bluetooth adapter.

The company is still holding true to its original promise of free VoIP service for standard customers. If you forgo the $10 monthly premium features, Ooma only costs you the price you pay for the Telo box and adapters.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Ooma has over 222,000 customers so far, and it boasts that it ranked first among phone providers in a recent Consumer Reports survey.

Twilio, which provides software to connect phone calls to web-based applications, announced today it is releasing a software development kit (SDK) that integrates the company’s two-way audio service into web applications with a few lines of Javascript.

Like Skype, the Twilio client allows voice communications to occur over a number of different channels including through phones, tablets, websites, within web and mobile applications and more. Developers can use the client to solve a number of different enterprise headaches like creating call centers, telephone conferences, eCommerce contact pages, help desks and more, Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson told VentureBeat.

“The existing telephony network is a big dumb audiopipe,” he said.

Though transmitting voice over the Internet (VoIP) is not new, the SDK makes the capability widely available for app developers. Lawson said his team decided developers needed to bypass carriers in the same way Skype does. Skype-like capabilities are in demand for programmers, but the company recently acquired by Microsoft has not been very friendly to independent developers, he said.

“Skype is obviously amazing and transformed the way people interact, but Skype is only one client,” Lawson said. “We want to make that available for millions of developers.”

While at the Twilio offices in downtown San Francisco, which screams start-up with Twilio tee shirts lining the walls, Lawson showed me a call center in action. The developer, who is a Twilio employee, created an application that lets people make and receive voice calls using Twilio’s back-end functions. The application includes note-taking and contact-editing capabilities.

The web-based call center app was able to pull names, photos, locations, etc. from other data sources on the Internet. Lawson was able to edit the information and save any information gleaned from the call. The data immediately repopulated when he called the contact again.

For example, say you are on online retailer Amazon’s website. The company can quickly pull data like what product you are browsing to identify your needs. But developers still have to write scrapers, which crawl the internet for information and import it into their programs. Twilio does not provide the data.

“Imagine Amazon had a talk-to-us-now button and Amazon picks up to say, ‘Hi, how can I help you today?’” he said.

On the business side, companies could see a major price reduction. Traditionally outbound calls cost two cents per minute, and inbound calls cost one cent, using existing services. With Twilio, calls cost a quarter of a penny per minute.

Twilio has been developing the client, which is available on all major web browsers, for about nine months. It tested the client in various environments using a number of different devices to guarantee lower latency and high audio quality. The client hasn’t been the only project for Twilio, which recently announced short-code offerings at VentureBeat’s MobileBeat conference in San Francisco, Calif., this year.

Around 40,000 developers use Twilio. The San Francisco, Calif.-based company has 60 employees. Twilio has raised $16 million in funding to date from the Founders Fund, Union Square Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners.