3Com Dips Into SIP Telephony For Small And Mid-Sized Businesses

3Com Corporation (Santa Clara, CA - 408-326-5000) has unveiled 3Com SIP Solutions, an Internet-centric voice solution aimed at CLECs, ISPs, ASPs, and their small and mid-sized business customers. Available immediately in the U.S., 3Com SIP Solutions includes SIP-based Internet phones, personal digital assistant (PDA) phone control applications, a SIP client service platform, software developer's kit, and support services.

The 3Com SIP Phone is a plug-and-play Ethernet endpoint, with high-end business telephone features. The phone leverages SIP technology to support additional functions such as user mobility, multiple user support through one phone, and non-intrusive software upgrades directly from the network.

The 3Com SIP PDA Phone Control Application is a software application for hand-helds. It allows end-users to control a 3Com SIP phone by directing the PDA at the phone's infrared port. Users can thus download the characteristics (and IP address) of their phone to any other 3Com SIP phone, as well as their address book and speed dials. The PDA-to-phone link is open and standards-based, allowing third party Palm and other PDA developers to program their own versions of downloadable 3Com SIP phone identities.

Finally, the SIP Client Service Platform is comprised of the 3Com SIP Signaling Server and the 3Com SIP Support System, and manages the authentication, signaling, and provisioning of the client phones throughout the network. The server also supports all call signaling functions between client devices and backbone PSTN gateway networks, including proxy, re-direct, forking registrar, and location management functions. The 3Com SIP Support System handles server configuration, as well as subscriber provisioning, including phone numbers, user preferences, voicemail, extension dialing plans, and user privileges.

SIP Solutions architecture will work with 3Com's broadband access equipment, including the OfficeConnect Remote 840 SDSL Router, which has SIP-aware address sharing and firewall capabilities.

The 3Com SIP Phone lists at $395 USD, with a one-year limited warranty. This price includes the 3Com SIP PDA Phone Control Application, as well as the infrared-ready port device. Pricing on the 3Com Client Service Platform varies with system configuration.

Enter 300 at www.computertelephony.com/productinfo

Copia Steps Into The Visual Voice Gap

With the sudden demise of Artisoft's IVR development tool Visual Voice, developers have been scrambling to find a substitute to develop extensions and customized call handlers for TeleVantage. Copia (Naperville, IL - 630-388-6900) has stepped into the gap with its FaxFacts product, which not only offers complete LAN-based fax handling for TeleVantage systems, but IVR development capabilities as well.

The ability to record prompts and play back sound files is actually a necessary component of FaxFacts's fax-on-demand application, but the software's IVR functionality goes further, allowing application developers to incorporate multi-level menus, database access, automated query response and even transactions.

"We have phrase-speaking ability that allows us to encode a database field and hand that to our play-variable routine," says Steve Hersee, Copia president," with the result that FaxFacts on TeleVantage can and does insert variable account information into fluid sentences. In Spain they're using our IVR to automate pay-per-view orders for soccer games. We have cell phones in Germany doing web-data access."

Copia has been working for the last year to integrate its Fax Mail and IVR software into the TeleVantage server. FaxFacts also adds complete fax server capabilities to TeleVantage, is available with support for as few as two fax ports, and can be extended to thousands of T-1/E-1 ports for large installations. Copia is now extending special pricing to resellers who wish to install it on their in-house NFR copies of TeleVantage. Interested developers and resellers should contact Copia's sales department for details.

Enter 301 at www.computertelephony.com/productinfo

Motorola's GPS IC For Cell Phones

Motorola's Telematics Communications Group (Elk Grove Village, IL - 888-298-5217), new Oncore GPS chip enables Global Positioning System (GPS) features to be easily built into to products such as cell phones, PDAs, and laptops. With its small size (8mm by 8mm) and lower cost, it lends support to the adoption of location-based voice applications.

Oncore GPS integrates both the 1.5 GHz RF front end and the digital baseband processing into a single die. As a result of a 10:1 reduction in components, the 12-channel device also represents a substantial decrease in current GPS pricing.

The chip consumes only 60mW for the combined RF and digital sections in full-power mode, providing a position fix every second.

A dual conversion architecture with fractional synthesizer onboard improves jamming immunity, and enables easier co-location with cell phone transmitters such as GSM and Bluetooth. As a host-based solution, it uses the memory and processing power of the host central processing unit to calculate the GPS position. The GPS chip is available now in sample quantities with full production scheduled for Q1 '01.

Enter 302 at www.computertelephony.com/productinfo

Genesys Announces New Framework

Genesys (San Francisco, CA - 415-437-1100) has repackaged its entire product line, putting previously disparate components under one solution umbrella as Genesys 6. The new framework breaks down into five hierarchical layers - configuration, management, media, services, and reporting - and consists of five functional sub-groups: enterprise routing, network routing, Internet Contact Center, Outbound Contact Center, and workforce management. While some new features and capabilities have been added to existing products, most of the innovation in Genesys 6 takes place in the areas of configuration and management.

Specifically, Genesys has simplified the installation and maintenance of its products, and made it easier to deploy component pieces as part of an integrated system. One example is a set of configuration wizards that follow the familiar Windows format for installing new software. Genesys has also added GUI templates for setting up call routing schemes and selecting statistical data for reporting purposes. At the system management level, fault monitoring and alarm notification for an entire enterprise network can now be handled from a single user interface.