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The Industries
Lawsuits
Conference Call History
A Conference call, or multi party phone connections has roots in what was known as a party line. In this setup a phone call was physically connected to multiple handsets by wires where more than one handset could be picked up at a time. In some rural areas households phones are still setup in this fashion where RJ11 analog is terminated at multiple handsets in a single or multiple dwelling including barns and outhouses. As time went on many households moved away from a 'lan' or LAND line and to save money have moved primarily to mobiles, handys, or as are referred to in the U.S. 'Cell Phones'. Now we have a problem, there are no physical connections to pickup up multiple handsets as the wires are missing! This is where Conference Calls come in. Today we Use VoIP (Voice Over IP = Internet Protocol) to make these connections but just a few years ago a PBX (Private Branch Exchange) would have been used. Ginormous companies like Cisco and Polycom showed up to offer hardware for the small business owner to host their own phone systems and conduct their own conference calls, but these are now irrelevant and the decline in their stock price and user base reflects this shift. Internet VoIP based conference calls allow anyone, anywhere throughout the world to conduct multi party conversations where with only one loss of function, the NSA and other world TLA (Three Letter Agencies) are able to monitor and influence the direction of business. These tools are so powerful, even the global conglomerate Microsoft saw the power in this and purchased Skype for 8.5 BILLION dollars in 2011.Robocallers, Telemarketers and Scammers - the VoIP black hole
Today - VoIP services are often abused to connect multiple parties, but not the ones you may intend. Fishing and other scrud services are often initiated by robo (robotic) dialers built on the very free services listed below where less than ethical organizations harass a perfectly good cell phone by spoofing origination from the same prefix so you think it is from someone in your area just so they can contact you for Telemarketing, fake Alerts and Reminders, fake Payments and Scams. in these call you are typically asked about, virus scanning, solar installation, money transfers, possible IRS violation and other stupid scams. but as P.T. Barnum says "there is a sucker born ever minute" - or was it the con man Paper Collar Joe? at any rate, you only have to be a sucker once, or once in 10,000 times for these fools to be profitable, so it can get very frustrating... A little more history
Starting in 2004, with the mass adoption of VOIP technology, which had been in development since 1973 - connecting unproductive business men for free was now possible. VocalTec started in 1995 and when launched, joined microsoft NetMeeting as some of the first mainstream offerings. by 1998 Vocaltec could claim about 1% of all voice traffic. By 2003, VOIP traffic accounted for about 25% of all traffick, but the growth trajectory was not over yet. Skype beta launched in 2003 allowing people to call for free but working best with emerging broadband connections including DSL and ISDN. Skype was and remains closed source, limited access to servers, but the call of cheap and free trumped that and popularity continues to soar.
lots and lotsa companies
oOma, Vonage, MagicJack, Grasshopper, RingCentral, Nextiva are just the beginning. if you haven't joined the bandwagon yet, consider the following:
* VoIP.com
* Phone power
* RingRingCentral
* Nextiva
* VOIPO
FONALITY - 54 reviews
VONAGE BUSINESS - 65 reviews
MITEL MICLOUD BUSINESS - 24 reviews
MAGICJACK FOR BUSINESS - 3 reviews
STAR2STAR COMMUNICATIONS - 4 reviews
TELEBROAD - 4 reviews
MegaPath - 14 reviews
Jive VOIP - 267 reviews
VoiPLy - 6 reviews
RingCentral 135 reviews
Gabbit - 17 reviews
Panterra networks - 23 reviews
Intermedia Unite - 1 review
ONSIP - 53 reviews
oxox CloudPhone - 10 reviews
Cyclix Networks - 3 reviews
ClarityTel - 2 reviews
VoipStudio - 1 review
Virutal PBX - 3 reviews
DIDforSale - 5 reviews
CEBOD Telecom - 4 reviews
ALLIANCE Phones - 12 reviews
FOEHN - 0 reviews
Corvisa - 2 reviews
Vonage - 20 reviews
AVOXI - 0 reviws
8x8 - 63 reviews
VoIPo - 42 reviews
ITP - 104 reviws
Axvoice - 52 reviws
Telappliant - 0 reviews
PhonePower - 158 reviews
Zulu - 8 reviews
ZenPhone - 0 reviews
VOXOX WholeSale - 0 reviews
VOipInvite - 1 review
VoIP Innovations - 6 reviews
VoiceTerm - 0 reviews
Vitcom - 0 reviews
Twilio Flex - 0 reviews
ThinQ - 0 reviews
Telnyx - 1 review
SafeSoft - 0 reviews
RingByName - 0 reviews
Revesoft - 0 reviews
Infinity Datatel - 0 reviews
IDT Global - 1 review
Hosted Numbers - 3 reviews
GoTrunk International - 0 reviews
FlowRoute - 1 review
Dexatel - 0 review
CommPeak - 1 review
CircleLoop - 0 review
Alcazar Networks - 1 review
ECLogic - 1 review
OOMA Telo - 6 review
Zultys - 5 review
Ztelco - 0 review
ZingoTel - 72 reviews (very poor)
YouTring - 0 review
Your Choice - 6 reviews
YorVoice - 1 review
Yak - 3 reviews
Xpander Communicaitons - 0 review
XO Communicaitons - 0 review
XLVOX - 0 reivew
XLN Telecom - 0 review
WorkSmart - 0 review
WordPress - 0 review
WireSpeed Telecommunications - 5 reviews
Windstream - 2 reviews
WebAcall - 10 reviews
W VOIP - 0 reviews
VYLmedia - 175 reviews
Voxline - 0 reviews
VoxGate
Voxby
VoxBeam
VotaCall
VortexVOip
VonJour
Vonix LTD
Vonics Digital
VOIPwise
VOIPVOIP
VOPItrex
VIOPstunt
VOIPNet
VOIPGO
VOIPGate
VOIPFrog.com - 6 reviews, all good
VOIPDITO - 9 reviews
VOIPCHEAP
VOIPBUSTER
VOIPax
VOIP.ms
VOIP.com Cloud PBX
Voip Wave
VoiceVoice
VoiceStick
VoiceSpring
Voiceral Communications
VoiceMeUp
VoiceLogix
Voiceip Solutions
Voice1Direct
Voice Trader - now this has got to be the front for the NSA - at least they are honest about it
Voice Carrier
Vocatel
Vocalcom Call Center - originator of spam becuase it is the only one with Call Center in it
VocalCom
Vitelity
Vital Voice and Data
VirtuTone
Virtual-Tel
Viper Voip - the snakeiest service
ViaTalk
VestaLink
Vertical marketing
Verizon (s)mall Business Phone
Verizon Enterprise
Verizon - how many times can they offer a service?
Veracity Networks
Venali
VelocityTel
Velocity Networks
VanillaSoft
V2VIP VideoPhones
USBackBone - another NSA front?
US LEC
UnSI VOIP
UNO.Im - the first IM domain type!
Unlimitel
UniVOIP
UnityFax
Unity
Unitel Voice
United IPX
UniServe
UnifiedDirect
UNIA Telecom
UltraHosting
Uk2.net
Tuttelecom
Tut Telecom
TrustFax
Trust Telephony - because you should NOT trust the others
Trinity Systems
Triniti Genesys Digital Phone Services - tied with verizon for the longest dumb name
Trikon
Trans-West Network Solution
TranGang company.com
Trace Routes
Tpad
Toll Free Conferencing - this is it folks... the whole point of this article!
TOktumi
TinCanTalk - at least they are honest about the voice quality
Time Warner Cable Businss Class
Time Warner Cable
TierZero
ThinkBring
The Telecom Spot
The Planet
TerraSip
Telx
TelTub - like Teletubby, suprisingly good reviews
TelTalkUSA
Telsun Communications
Telovations
Teliax
Tlextreme
Televelocity
Teleyssi
Telesynergy
Telesphere
Telepacific
TeleHop VOIP
Telego
Teledynamic Communications - the trusted source for terminator services
TeleBlend
Telasip
Technology System INtegrator
Tds VOIP
TDS Columbus Business Voip
Talkswitch
Talkatone
Tlak Times
Talk MOtion
T-mobile Business Connnect
SVI Hosted PBX Solutio
Sutus
SureVOIP
SuperGreenHosting - not a voip server
SunRocket
SunrisePHone
Streamline.net
Startlogic
Starbilling - cause bills are in the stars!
SRfax
Spectrum Business
SpeakGreat
SpeakEasy
SoundCurve
Sonus Networks
Sonic
Sofla Voice
SmoothStone
SmartFax
Skype - wow.. the 8 billion dollar grand daddy
SIProutes.com
Sipfly
Sip Bound
Sipmly Bits
SipmleSignal
Shoretel Sky
ServerPronto
Send2Fax
SaveonFaxes
SaveonConferences
Sangoma
Sagevone
Sage Telecom
Rocketvoice
Ringio
Ringcentral FAX
RevolutionIP
Revo Preimum
ReliaClear - because it's REALLY Clear
Rebtel
RapidFax
Rangatel
R-19
Qwest
QuiVoice
Quik Voip
QunatumVoice
QuantumTone
Qttalk
Punto
Pulse
Pulsar360
Proximiti
PowerNetvoice
PowernetGlobal
PopFax
Pneuma Voip
Pivical Communicaitons
PhoneGnome - its not just for your front yard any more
PhoneBooth - also expired
Phone.com - really?
PenyTel
PC-Telephone - straight from the 90's
PBXNSIP
PayperFax - because Payper is more green
Paragon Voip
Pandela
Packet-Fusion - not just for rockets any more
Pacific Lightnet
OrbitVoice - from 2010
Optimum voice
Opex: Internet Voice
Ooma Office
Onit Communciations
OneSuite Fax
Onesuite