Until pretty recently Internet Telephony didn’t leave small businesses with up to 20 people with much choice. On one end you could find ASTERISK whereas on the other end you were left with Skype.
Now there is a serious third option for small business use which it much easier to set up than Asterisk but offers you much more functions and flexibility than Skype. As with Asterisk you can choose your VoIP Service provider, incoming phone numbers and digital lines from hundreds of the new Internet Telco’s from anywhere worldwide. On the other hand you have an intuitive user Interface that makes the setup very easy and lets you set up a whole wireless office network right out of FRITZ!Box within 2-3 hours.
Functions like Voicemail, FAX2email, VPN, integrated Print server just to name a few features really make FRTIZ!Box become the centerpiece of your office. The integrated superfast Wi-Fi N, Gigabit LAN Router and ADSL/ VDSL Modem unit make your modem obsolete and enhance your network speed while clearing the cable spaghetti from your office. With more than 10 Million units sold at a fraction of the cost of an Asterisk system the red little box also became known as the “Swiss Army Knife” of communications and network Infrastructure.

Depending on the VoIP codec deployed in a conversation the bandwidth varies. Nowadays (2011) modern systems normally use either G.711 (IDSN quality) or the newer G.722 (HD Telephony) codec. Both codecs use 64 Kibitz for incoming and outgoing conversations. Anyone how is interested in learning more about bandwidth consumption should take a look at the free bandwidth calculator here.

From now on friends, family or business partners can reach you at a normal local phone number as if you were living there! Overseas callers just dial a local land line number in their country, than enter your personal number and get connected with you at local calling charges in their country. The call is routed via Internet in crystal clear voice quality – with no monthly charges or other strings attached. You can register your account with any compatible SIP device. If you register the phone number of the caller within the Fritz!Box phone book you will even see the caller Name show up on your phone display. For ease of use frequent callers can easily save access Number and your personal number to their phone book. Now they can reach you without making expensive overseas calls from any phone, anywhere – No computer needed. More info here

In this post I will write a little about common VoIP codecs used to conduct calls via Internet. In Thailand G.729 is still popular because of its advantage to eat up relative small bandwidth. However with faster broadband speeds the bandwidth is not really a problem nowadays anymore. Quality wise G.7.11 offers ISDN caller quality and is certainly the most used VoIP codec nowadays. More recently the G.7.22 was developed and offers High Definition (HD Telephony) All Fritz!Box models support HD telephony today. In combination with HD capable phones like the Fritz!Fon  MT-D and MT-F callers can indulge into a new level of call quality with a much broader voice spectrum.

 

Codec	Bandwidth/kbps	Comments
G.711	64	Delivers precise speech transmission. Very low processor requirements. Needs at least 128 kbps for two-way.
G.722	48/56/64	Adapts to varying compressions and bandwidth is conserved with network congestion.
G.726	16/24/32/40	An improved version of G.721 and G.723 (different from G.723.1)
G.729	8	Excellent bandwidth utilization. Error tolerant. License required.
GSM	13	High compression ratio. Free and available in many hardware and software platforms. Same encoding is used in GSM cell phones (improved versions are often used nowadays).
iLBC	15	Robust to packet loss. Free
Speex	2.15 / 44	Minimizes bandwidth usage by using variable bit rate.

Do you have an iPhone an iPod or iPad running on iOS 4 ? With help of the FRITZ! App Fon your phone can easily connect via WLAN with the FRITZ!Box 7390, 7270 or 7170 *. Use your Iphone to make calls via fixed line or Internet  - connected to Fritz!Box the the smartphone acts as an IP extention phone.

When the FRITZ! App is installed and configured; your mobile behaves like an extension phone within the network.  You can make outgoing calls via fixed line and Internet with your IPhone.

Besides that your FRITZ!Fon App offers the  following comfort features:

* Voicemail speed dial
* Speakerphone

* Fritz!Box will support these features in the upcoming firmware updates

For now the Software is available in English and German. You can download it here.

AVM just released a firmware update for the Fritz!WLAN USB Sticks. Here are some of the impovements

 

New Features:

• Fast Roaming integrated
• ACPI behavior improved
• WPS behavior improved
• serveral client improvements
• Stick & Surf improved
• Interaction with Microsoft wireless zero configuration (WZC) service improved

 

You can download the firmware here.

iNum stands for international Number. It is a new kind of global phone number for a new kind of world -- a world with a new geography that's about local presence and global relationships, not about distance or national borders.

iNum is making use of the +883 global country code newly created by the ITU (International Telecommunication Union).

One number, worldwide

Traditional phone numbers are tied to a particular country, or even a particular city, so when you move to another country you need to get a new number from a new supplier.
iNum numbers however do not have this limitation and you can therefore keep your iNum wherever you go in the world. iNum Numbers also support SMS

Who can call my iNUM?

iNums are reachable from a growing list of networks. Eventually iNums will be reachable from any network worldwide just as any other ‘real' phone number.

How much does an iNUM Number cost?

INUM Numbers are free of charge.

How can I get my iNUM?

There are a few companies out there. I have tested my iNUM Number with Localphone. The Numbers are free and you can just attach them to your Localphone account. Using these numbers with your VoIP equipment is equally straight forward. Calls between iNUM users are free.

How can my friends call my iNUM?

Since iNum are not yet reachable from every phone network in the world. There are local access numbers in 45 countries that can be used to reach iNum from any phone. This effectively makes iNum reachable from 45 countries for the cost of a local call, from any phone. Simply dial the local access number closest to you, and dial the chosen iNum afterwards. More information here.