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Verizon to merge with FairPoint in New England, Midwestern states
For you lucky folks in New England who just got access to Verizon's 50Mbps FiOS services, you didn't think those hefty upgrades were sans a cost, did ya? Sure, Verizon's socking it to the high-end customers on that monthly bill, but the huge implementation cost ($18 billion, to be exact) of running all that fiber has persuaded Verizon to "sell the New England landline business as well as lines in several Midwestern states" to get a whopping $1.7 billion in debt wiped from its slate. The purpose of the merger is to free up assets to continue full speed ahead with its extremely costly FiOS rollouts, and since Verizon is intelligently targeting the largest markets (read: most lucrative) first, it's leaving the rural spots for FairPoint to handle. Nearly 3,000 Verizon employees will now be receiving checks from the Charlotte, NC-based FairPoint, with about 600 more expected to switch after the deal is completed. Additionally, shareholders will receive $1 billion of FairPoint common stock in the merger, as both companies attempt to keep everyone smiling throughout the process. If everything goes as planned, which typically never happens in these type deals, the merge will be complete "by year's end," so if you're content with Verizon services up in New England or the Midwest, don't be alarmed if "some FairPoint bill" starts showing up in your mail. [Warning: Read link requires subscription]
RTX Cordless DualPhone 3088 offers landline / Skype calling
We can all get a bit sensational at times, but RTX Telecom apparently thinks its DualPhone 3088 is a marvel of modern science. Touting its "standalone nature" and "landline / Skype functionality" as quite the awe-inspiring duo, the admittedly average dual-function phone doesn't deviate too far from the path already blazed by other computer-free solutions. The device can make and receive both traditional landline and Skype In / Out calls without the need for your PC to be near or even powered on. Per usual, the phone includes a separate base station that sports inputs for your landline and router connection, and then broadcasts the signals wirelessly "up to 300 meters" to the cordless phone station set up elsewhere. It also features the latest DECT technology, an LCD to skim through your contact list, and claims to play nice with both Macs and PCs -- which makes perfect sense considering no computer is required at all. Nevertheless, British users looking for a matte black option to juggle your landline and VoIP calling duties can pick up the DualPhone 3088 now for £109.99 ($209).
Philips VOIP433 and VOIP321 phones reviewed
It seems that Philips' delightful duo of VoIP phones have made their rounds in the US, and have finally landed in the reviewers lounge at GeekZone New Zealand. After spotting these units awhile back, the VOIP433 and VOIP321 both hit the testing block, and choosing between the two seems to boil down to whichever internet telephony platform best suits you. The 433 provided "true plug-and-play" functionality with Windows Live Messenger, and the unit's automatic contact updating was highly regarded. The biggest dig, however, came from the substandard LCD screen, which was dubbed "one of the worst" the crew had ever seen. On the 321 side, all of the advertised Skype functionality was performed adequately, the two-line display was "comfortable to read," and the larger button layout made dialing less of a chore. Both units touted a satisfactory 10-hour battery life (while talking), separate power supplies to locate the base station away from the PC, and all the dedicated landline features we've come to know and love. Overall, both devices were hailed as worthwhile purchases if you spend a good bit of time chatting it up with VoIP, but deciding between Windows Live Messenger and Skype is entirely in your court.
Cable VoIP calls clearer than landlines?
Thinking about ditching that landline? Are those VoIP options -- especially the free ones -- looking more and more attractive? Keynote Systems, a globally respected internet and communication testing company, has completed a ridiculously thorough investigation on the true audio quality that can be had using VoIP (within American borders), and the results are quite intriguing. To test call quality and remove human error / bias, they had automated machines in apartments nearly 3,000 miles apart call one another 125,000 times throughout the month of August, play a 30 second clip, and let an audio analyzer handle the rest. VoIP hard / soft phones, digital cable VoIP phones, and traditional landline phones were all tested and compared, only to discover that cable company-provided VoIP phones that utilized PacketCable -- an IP multimedia transmission system optimized for coax -- scored a whopping 4.24 MOS (mean opinion score), trouncing the 4.0 found in traditional phone networks. Granted, when viewing all VoIP venues, outliers were found around 2.6, which is fairly unacceptable when a 3.2 MOS is considered the "minimum" for a frustration-free conversation. All in all, landlines ranked second only to the mighty cable offerings, while hard VoIP phones (like the ATS E6501) slid in third, and "soft" services (Skype, for instance) were declared last. While we've personally had great success with the likes of Gizmo and other free internet calling alternatives, our ears certainly aren't sine wave decoders, so if you're thinking of tossing that ole rotary dialer for something with a touch more clarity, you might as well give that cable company a ring.[Via Ars Technica]
Colleges phasing out landlines in favor of mobiles
In an effort to get hip to the times (read: stop hemorrhaging cash on unprofitable landlines), some colleges are now submitting to the reality that virtually all students prefer mobile phones as their primary form of contact by decommissioning or reducing reliance on campus and dorm phone systems in favor of wireless. Several are going so far as to provide their students with custom plans and mobile apps connected to campus systems. As we initially reported last year, one of the more ambitious projects is coming together at New Jersey's Montclair State University where incoming freshmen now receive obligatory LBS-enabled cellphones loaded with school software and services co-developed with Rave Wireless. The LBS aspect has apparently been a hangup for some students, though, weirded out by the concept of being tracked by their deans and professors until they're assured that the GPS tracking functionality of the phone is strictly opt-in only, which can be activated by individuals in an emergency to assist police. Morrisville State in New York even buddied up with Nextel Partners (yeah, that Nextel Partners) to beef up campus coverage in exchange for bundling wireless plans with students' room and board bills. It's always refreshing to see stodgy institutions wising up to these sorts of trends -- albeit late -- but as the AP points out, many students are likely to be coming in with existing phones and family plans that end up cheaper than what the schools are able to offer. Of course, if Montclair offers real-time tracking of every pizza delivery driver in town, well, there's your killer app right there.
Audex's Bluetooth Headset for landlines
It's okay, we didn't know people were still using landlines either. For the last few holdouts, though, Audex (not to be confused with the Burton jacket of the same name) presents its Desk-Free Bluetooth Headset for telephones, which attaches to your fixed line phone and gives you that same great 10-feet of wireless freedom that you've come to love from your current cellphone-headset combo. We've no idea where you can pick one of these up nor how much it'll set you back, but if you're really in need of such a product, we're confident that you'll do what it takes to track one down.[Via Slashphone]
Mplat's Skype jumper box
You won't get it for free like Vonage subscribers do, but Skype users are probably getting enough of a free ride already that they won't mind plunking down the $50 needed for Mplat's new Jumper S100 personal gateway, which'll let you use any old landline phone as a Skype phone. The unassuming little blue box (available in grey as well, it seems) also packs in a fair amount of additional features, including call forwarding to your cellphone, three-way conferencing between Skype and PSTN calls, voice recording, and voice mail support. Unfortunately, the software required for most of those features is Windows only -- hey guys, Mac users like free phone calls too, you know.[Via Red Ferret Journal]
Philips Messenger Phone for Microsoft VoIP
It seems that there's a new VoIP handset on the market everyday, and today is no different, although you have to be a fan of Microsoft's version of Internet telephony if you want to take full advantage of the upcoming Philips Messenger Phone. Sporting a small color display, the plug-and-play VOIP4331S allows you to make free worldwide client-to-client calls over the Windows Live Messenger service or dial standard phone numbers on the cheap via Windows Live Call, and also acts as a regular cordless phone for when you get sick and tired of the crappy audio you're getting with VoIP. Philips promises that this model -- along with a dual-handset version called the VOIP4332S -- will "soon be available" at UK e-tailer Comet, but neither company is quoting prices yet.[Thanks, Nir S.]
Sprint Nextel spins off Embarq landline unit
Sprint Nextel is set to officially spin-off its landline unit tonight -- at one minute before midnight, specifically. The new company, dubbed Embarq, will then begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday morning, and will also join the S&P 500. As we reported earlier, Embarq plans to offer dual-mode handsets that can transfer seamlessly between WiFi and cellular networks, pitting it against T-Mobile and Lucent in that area. Embarq also offers high-speed Internet service in addition to local and long distance phone service and will rank as the 5th largest local communications company in the United States, the company says.[Via CNET Broadband Blog]
