VoIP Briefs

CompUSA adds business VoIP to their lineup, and other VoIP news.

TWICE (This Week In Consumer Electronics) - March 27, 2006

Home Depot Stocks VoIP

San Jose, Calif. — VoIP provider 8x8 will sell its VoIP-enabled Uniden UIP160P cordless phone through Home Depot. The 5.8GHz digital cordless will retail for a suggested $99. Once 8x8 service is activated, consumers receive a $100 mail-in rebate. Home Depot will become 8x8's largest retail partner and marks the emergence of VoIP as a “mass market product,” said Huw Rees, 8x8's sales and marketing VP. The UIP160P is expandable to 10 handsets and offers a speakerphone, 20 distinctive ringtones, caller ID, handset paging and message-waiting light indicator. 8x8's calling services include unlimited dialing within the United States and Canada for $19.99 per month, which includes caller ID, call forwarding, three-way conferencing, voicemail, E-911, voicemail-to-e-mail notification, find me/follow me, simultaneous ring, seven-digit dialing and local number portability.

Ojo Gets Mojo Price

Trevose, Pa. &mdash WorldGate Communications announced a second-generation Ojo videophone that's less expensive than the original. The Ojo Shadow will carry a suggested retail of $399 with a $150 rebate available, to bring it to $249. The phone offers the same specifications as the original Ojo minus the 2.4GHz cordless handset. Instead, it offers a speakerphone and a headset jack for plugging in optional headsets. WorldGate will keep the original Ojo on the market and bump its suggested retail down from $799, to $499 (or $349 with the $150 rebate). The videophones work over a broadband Internet connection with service provided by WorldGate. The original Ojo had been distributed and marketed by Motorola, but the two companies terminated the relationship in February. WorldGate will handle marketing for both Ojo phones.

CompUSA Gets Business VoIP

San Jose, Calif. &mdash CompUSA plans to offer a hosted VoIP solution for small business users in partnership with service provider Bandwidth.com and hardware supplier Vodavi. The 6800 Series Hosted IP terminals provide “carrier-grade” service and is the first such product to be sold through a retail channel, CompUSA said. The terminals support from 10 to 200 voice lines and offer four-digit dialing, automated attendant, voicemail and browser-based system administration. Pricing on the terminals wasn't set at press time.

RTX Announces DUALphone Update

San Jose, Calif. &mdash Wireless product developer RTX America announced a firmware update for its USB DUALphone cordless PC phone for Skype calling. The update, which is available free online, lets the phone access Skype voicemail, receive incoming chat alerts, add call waiting and pull down more Skype functionality from the PC to the handset. The phone's base station connects to a PC for Skype calls and to a landline for traditional telephone calls. Different ringtones distinguish between incoming Skype and landline calls. It offers the ability to toggle between Skype calls and Skype chat notification. The DUALphone is based on the DECT 6.0 frequency with an indoor range of 150 feet and an outdoor range of 1,000 feet. The DUALphone is currently shipping for a suggested $139.99.