Skype has recently reached a new pinnacle of success, enjoying 23 million simultaneous users on March 8, 2010. The number of concurrent Skype users has been rising steadily since 2003, and a minimum of 26 million users are predicted by the end of 2010.

 

A new CDW Unified Communications Tracking Poll recently surveyed 915 respondents who are actively involved with unified communications related technologies, including 150 individuals each from American “medium/large” businesses, federal, state, and local governments, healthcare workers, and higher education and K-12 public school administrators.

Security and quality-of-service seem to be the chief concerns of VoIP providers everywhere, and MegaPath, as of March 1, 2010, has launched a new hosted VoIP service which they hope will offer customers a higher level of both security and quality.

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Small Business VoIP company 8x8 (formerly Packet8) has now connected to the New Edge AX ecosystem of business applications. Dan Weirich, chief financial officer and president of 8x8, hopes that the new connection will let 8x8 “better address the VoIP security and performance needs of both SMBs and larger enterprises that require private managed networks to conduct business operations.”

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According to a recent PointTopic analysis, VoIP hardware users grew by 15% in the first three quarters of 2009 to finally reach a new milestone: 100 million subscribers.John Bosnell, senior analyst at PointTopic said, "The number is close to 110 million today." Bosnell goes on to say that "This represents steady growth, particularly in the face of the financial turmoil of the recent past. For VoIP though there is an argument that these conditions are an uptake driver since you should be saving money if you’re making your calls over IP."

VoIP Provider Vocalocity has taken on a new CEO, Wain Kellum. Prior to joining Vocalocity, Kellum served as the CEO of Omnilink Systems, a leading provider of location-based service (LBS). Boris Jerkunica, Chairman and Co-Founder of Vocalocity, said in a press release that "Wain brings an ideal blend of leadership, technology, and sales experience that we need to continue to drive our company forward."

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OpenSpace Branch, a new product from Siemens Enterprise Corporation, represents a step forward in branch solutions technology. This new program is offered as part of the fourth release of Siemens Enterprise’s OpenSpace Voice program.

Verizon Wireless, described by Robert Poe at VoIP Evolution as “the most conservative U.S. carrier” is finally beginning to open its market up to new solutions. In the last year Verizon claimed that it would work to open its network as much as possible, and announced in October that it would soon be introducing two new handsets with Google Voice capability and Google Android-developed operating systems. Verizon followed this with a joint announcement of a deal with Google and announced plans to hold a joint press conference with Skype about a similar new deal to run Skype on Verizon equipment and networks.

BroadSoft has developed a comprehensive new set of mobile features for its flagship product, the BroadWorks Application Server Program. It was designed specifically for mobile and converged networks, and is able to integrate seamlessly with 2G, 3G, VoIP-capable 4G LTE, and WiMAX networks, allowing mobile operators to pursue new markets. Features include a mobile SIP trunk, which delivers fixed-mobile convergence over SIP trunks to a premises PBX, native mobile SS7 support, allowing integration with mobile networks using standard GSM MAP, CAMEL, ANSI-41 MAP and WIN  protocols, and voice over LTE support. BroadWorks also incorporates short message service 2.0, which is capable of extending SMS to all IP-enabled devices, Rich Communications Suite, which integrates presence, instant messaging, content sharing, and multimedia messaging service with voice and video calling, and many location-based services, including Home Zone/Office Zone preferential calling rates, location-based call routing and mobile presence and location applications for Unified Communications.

24 different mobile communications companies, including AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint, have announced plans to build a new online 'super store' called the Wholesale Applications Community. This store would apparently provide applications for many different smartphones and operating systems, and would be designed to encourage new program engineers to create programs applicable to a wide range of devices. The decision was announced at the Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona, Spain.