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SERVICE PROVIDERNEWSEach NEWS snippet is more in-depth on our web site.Point your browser to the URL above the story you wish to read.http://tmcnet.com/58541.1Rackspace Hosting Buys CloudkickWith all the new entrants in the hosting/cloud communications space and thegrowth in cloud computing in the datacenter, pressure for players to consolidateand expand, and to deliver morescalable management solutions, seem tobe building. On this front, RackspaceHosting recently announced plans tobuy Cloudkick. Rackspace is a specialistin hosting and cloud computing.Cloudkick makes web applications forcloud-server management.www.rackspace.comhttp://tmcnet.com/58544.1China Says ‘No’ ToNon-Incumbent VoIPInternet phone services other than thoseprovided by China Telecom and ChinaUnicom have been made illegal, whichis expected to make services like Skypeunavailable in the country, People’s Dailysays. The decision seems clearly aimed atmaintaining a duopoly of such servicesfor the two state-run communicationscompanies, while simultaneously tighteningcontrol of content and communicationswithin the country. China isnot the first country to declare Skype orother services illegal. The InternationalTelecommunications Union reportedin 2007 that VoIP was explicitly legalin dozens of countries (50 or so), but asyou can imagine, that leaves scores ofcountries where it is not.www.chinatelecom-h.comwww.chinaunicom.com.hkhttp://tmcnet.com/58540.1GENBAND Buys Cedar PointLess than eight months after closing its acquisitionof Nortel CVAS, GENBAND announcedits purchase of Cedar Point for anundisclosed sum.Cedar Point, which has7.5million lines in service globally, sells theSAFARI C3 Multimedia Switching System,a SIP-based VoIP switch that is compliantwith CableLab’s PacketCable specificationsand popular with the cable TV companies.While GENBAND moved into the No.1 cable market spot with its acquisition ofCVAS, Cedar Point (which at the time ofthe CVAS deal claimed 15 percent marketshare) brings to the table such marqueecableco customers as Comcast, Liberty,Charter and Kabel Deutschland (the leadingcableco in Germany). It also has as itscustomers various smaller cable companiesin the Caribbean, says Mehmet Balos,executive vice president and chief marketingofficer at GENBAND.www.genband.comhttp://tmcnet.com/58542.1The Skype Crash – Cause and EffectOn Wednesday, Dec. 22, a cluster of supportservers responsible for offline instant messagingbecame overloaded. As a result of thisoverload, some Skype clients received delayedresponses from the overloaded servers. In aversion of the Skype for Windows client (version5.0.0152), the delayed responses fromthe overloaded servers were not properlyprocessed, causing Windows clients runningthe affected version to crash. Around 50 percentof all Skype users globally were runningthe 5.0.0.152 version of Skype for Windows,and the crashes caused approximately 40percent of those clients to fail.www.skype.comhttp://tmcnet.com/58543.1VoIP Outfit Gets Its Ojo WorkingVoX Communications Corp., a supplier ofwholesale voice over IP telephone servicesand smartphone applications, has introducedthe Ojo Vision Digital Video Phoneand service as a core product offering toits retail and wholesale customerbase. The company, a wholly ownedsubsidiary of Pervasip Corp., ismarketing the voice and video solutionas a home phone replacementto consumers, and as a business-classcommercial solution tosmall and medium-sizebusiness customers. Inaddition to videocalling, each plan includesfeatures like caller ID, call waitingand three-way calling, as well as advancedfeatures such as three-way videoconferencing,connecting to a large screen LCD orTV, and unlimited video calling.www.voxcorp.nethttp://tmcnet.com/58563.1AOE Supports NewService-Centric ApproachADTRAN Inc. has unveiled a managementsolution called the AdvancedOperational Environment, or AOE. Thecompany describes the solution, whichbrings element management systems, anOSS gateway and service managementunder one umbrella, as a managementframework focused on service delivery andoperational improvement that abstractshardware from the network manager’suser interface. David Williams, who’sin charge of business development forAOE, says in light of changing dynamicsin the marketplace and customer needs,ADTRAN is moving from a manager ofhardware to a manager of systems. Thekey goals of AOE are to enable automatedservice activation, by offering integrationwith network operators’ existing gear andbilling, provisioning and other operationalsupport systems; to support the move to aservice-centric approach to management,by abstracting hardware out of the equation;to deliver a new level of system logicthat distills data down to a few actionableitems; and to let that all happen within amultivendor environment, by providingstandards-based interfaces.www.adtran.com24 INTERNET TELEPHONY ® February 2011 GoTo:GoTo:Subscribe FREE online at www.itmag.comTable of Contents • Ad Index