TMCnet SIP Phones Week in Review

It's that time again: time for another TMCnet Week in Review. This week in SIP Phones was pretty busy on the site, so let's jump right into it!

Friendly Technologies announced that Orange (News - Alert) Romania, a leading GM network operator in Romania, has deployed Friendly's TR-069 solution for managing SIP phones. This solution will help the operator to manage its SIP phones, including Yealink (News - Alert) and Grandstream, as well as a range of routers for its business and residential customers.

The TR-069 system is expected to reduce deployment costs and simplify the entire service life cycle of Orange Romania's (News - Alert) broadband and mobile devices.

In other news, a TMCnet contributor questioned the SIP telephony solutions industry, pointing out that, though SIP technology has the potential to unify communications, some uniformity in its implementation must be achieved first. A common solution presented to this problem recommended by experts is a session management middleware layer.

"The requirements are not just 'let's put a phone on the desk' anymore," said Jack Jachner, vice president of business development for Alcatel-Lucent's (News - Alert) OpenTouch. "Now we have to worry about what the device is, and there are more pieces to manage. We need a single point of management solution with a user focus."

Intelligent Recording unveiled a call recording product designed to make a connection between IP routers and a PC called the XTP ipTap. Currently available in pre-release and testing phases, the XTP ipTap supports NFC SV8100 IP phones and SIP phones for telephone recording.

This product eliminates the need for Ethernet cards and complicated connections, making for easy installation and maintenance. Furthermore, the XTP ipTap is compact yet still capable of monitoring up to 100 phones.

8x8 (News - Alert), meanwhile, went into business with the largest privately held construction company in the U.S., Irving Materials. The company has decided to use 8x8's Virtual Office business VoIP phone services in its 150+ U.S. locations.

"Irving Materials has been innovative in many ways, not just on the IT front," Irving Materials vice president of Information Technology, Jerry Howard said. "Using 8x8's technologies will now help us improve collaboration and efficiency which, in turn, will enable us to continue to provide the industry's best products and services."

Lastly, FHF Safety Products' Hazardous Area VoIP Telephone has been approved for use in North America. Called Ferntel VoIP, this new VoIP telephone is UL approved for hazardous areas rated Class 1 and Groups A, B, C or D.

A spokesperson for FHF Safety Products said the phone could be used “for chemical and petrochemical plants, off-shore platforms, power plants and food processing facilities,” adding, “The telephone can handle the large temperature differences found outdoors, high humidity, exposure to sea water and dust, as well as, mechanical wear and tear, making it perfect for use as an emergency telephone.”

That's all for this TMCnet Week in Review. Tune into the SIP Phones channel for more news in this sector.