Business News — 1 comment
10
Mar 10

Shane Ross says “Blueface are launching the ideal product for a downturn”

Published in Feburary ‘10, The article featured in the Sunday Independent. Written by Shane Ross it focuses on the FREE CALLS FOR LIFE offer, and how it saves the general consumer a huge amount on their telephone bill.

Hannah Flattery posing for Blueface

Hannah Flattery posing for Blueface

So,what can small businesses, haemorrhaging with cashflow problems, do? One way they can cut costs is by cancelling their subscription to the SFA. Another is by ensuring that they owe no money to AIB. A third is by reducing landline phone charges.

Last week, I found a new way of slashing my home telephone bill, courtesy of a small business with big ideas. Any scheme that kicks Eircom in the solar plexus is good news for those of us who have been victims of the dinosaur for decades.

So, it was wonderful to stumble on a small business start-up that promises to put another nail in the Eircom coffin. Two entrepreneurs entered my life. They will not be joining the SFA or borrowing from AIB. So far they have taken the private equity route.

As a crusty sceptic, I gave Alan Foy and Brendan Gaffney of Blueface a sideways glance when they insisted that I could have “free landline calls for life” if i handed over €199.

I have to confess as a punter who lost Stg£200 in the Eighties on the three-card trick to a man with an orange box just outside Harrods, I am a bit wary of racing certainties.

But knowing the pair well, I handed over the money and tested the product. The two telecom wizards installed a phone and promised me that I now have free landline calls for life.

Blueface has landed a recession buster. The phone provided will eliminate my line rental charge, provided I have a decent broadband connection. I reckon that the end of rental fee alone will reduce my telephone bill by hundreds of euro every year. Not to mention the free calls.

The phone is a cordless handset, easily attached to my old number. I will still pay for mobile calls through pre-payment and any calls outside the country, but even the mobile charges are cheaper than Eircom’s.

I win on the rental, there is none. I win on the mobile charges, they are cheaper. Two fingers to Eircom.

Any punter who wants free landline calls for life should head to blueface.ie. It is Skype without the computer. Blueface is exactly the type of resourceful small business that Ireland needs.  Consumers will love it becuase it will dramatically cut the household budget. So far the offer is only open to residential customers. But Blueface already has visionary plans for small business. The company is lead by a group of young entrepreneurs determined to shake-up the telecoms market. They are launching the ideal product for a downturn, watch this space.

The free landline offer may not be open forever. But it is for life!

Support — 1 comment
10
Mar 10

SIP Client for Ubuntu: Zoiper quick setup guide

Most broadband connections will work perfectly with Blueface. However, if you’re unsure about your connection, you can install a softphone to check your broadband connection is of sufficient quality to work with Blueface.

Softphones are quick and easy to setup and many of them are free of charge. Using a softphone enables you to assess your audio quality.

Screenshot-Zoiper

We have configuration guides for some softphones (SIP clients) on our website but they are mainly for Windows applications but none for Linux. Zoiper have a free SIP client available for free on Zoiper.com. that works on Windows, Linux and Mac OS.

To set it up on Linux Ubuntu, you have the choice between 2 applications: Zoiper Classic and Zoiper Communicator.

Zoiper Classic is fine if you only want to assess your audio quality and make a few tests calls. It’s VERY quick to setup, especially because Zoiper provides it directly as an executable (within a tar ball).

To set it up :

  1. Download the tar ball from : http://www.zoiper.com/download_list.php
  2. Decompress the file :  tar -zxvf filename
  3. Eventually move the executable to a different folder
  4. Run the executable.
  5. You will be prompted if you want to launch Zoiper at Start Up. If it’s only for testing, maybe, press ‘no’.
  6. To configure it with Blueface, click on ‘Menu’ (spanner key button on the right) > ‘Add a new SIP account’.
  7. You should be prompted for an account name, enter: Blueface.
  8. Fill the form with: domain: sip.blueface.ie, username: your Blueface username, password: your Blueface password, Caller ID: your name.
  9. Click on the button ‘Register’. The phone status should update.
  10. To make a test call, call ‘300′. You should hear some monkeys. It’s that simple.

Zoiper Communicator comes up in a .deb file so you can use Ubuntu’s package installer which does everything automatically. You can download the .deb file down the list on http://www.zoiper.com/download_list.php

Once all packages have been installed, follow this Zoiper Configuration guide that we made some months earlier with Windows screen shots. The steps are exactly the same.

Note that I’ve tested this with Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic).

If you have issues with Zoiper (or any other softphone) setting, post a message on our forum: VoIP Hardware and Software.

Guillaume

Industry news — 3 comments
02
Mar 10

Ronanlyons.com takes Best in Blogging award at the Digital Media Awards.

Blueface were at the Digital Media Awards last Thursday and it was nice to see such an array of talent across all of the categories. We sponsored the Best in Blogging category where the competition was intense. Ronan Lyons was selected by the judges in the end as overall winner for his entry at ronanlyons.com. This is a collection of Ronan’s analyses on the economy and it is well worth a visit on a regular basis. It is fantastic to see such prodigious talent make their work available for general consumption. That is the great thing about blogging in one sense – it democratizes information and can make it so much more accessible than academic commentary. Its not always necessary to dumb down material to make it palatable, its just necessary to explain it well. I have to confess to being a big fan of independent economic thinking and informed analysis. Incidentally for those people interested in the genesis of our current global crisis, Joseph Stiglitz’ books ‘The Roaring Nineties, provides excellent background material. Nouriel Roubini’s website, rgemonitor.com is also full of useful and in some cases essential commentary and background material. Many informed analysts and economists had been predicting this global financial crisis for many years, and of course Ireland was severely affected by it for a variety of reasons. I read recently an article which described Credit Default Swaps as like taking out insurance on your neighbour’s house – you have an inherent interest in seeing it burned down! So Ronan Lyons’ blog is of particular interest at a time like this when many people are looking for answers and informed well reasoned commentary.

All of the other entries were highly rated too – the Gold Medal winner Brightspark contains a wealth of information and should be required reading for anyone involved in online marketing or marketing in general. This is a source of free advice and tips which is continuously updated with real life examples, so it is relevant, insightful and doesn’t cost anything!

Curious Wines is a wonderful blog full of information on wine from all over the world, with additional material on food and wine matching, recipes and all sorts of other treasures. The Story is at the same time heart-breaking and inspiring and I challenge anyone to remain unmoved – donate here

The Story – thestory.ie is another example of information and analysis brought to the public from an independent source. There’s nothing quite so powerful as information and having a source to arm oneself with background to many of the current affairs stories in Ireland is invaluable. The people should not be afraid of the state – the state should be afraid of the people!

mulley.net is the home of Damien Mulley whom I was looking out for on Thursday but unfortunately failed to meet up with. I’m a big fan of both the blog and the informative and irreverent views on current affairs.

The Grand Prix award was won by Kavaleer Productions for a beautiful animated feature and there was a special award for grannyogrimm which is up for an oscar for best animated short film.

Overall the breadth of talent on display was inspiring. It is reassuring to know that despite the current climate and the gloomy outlook, the future for this particular sector is bright.

Thanks to all at Ashville for superb organisation and to all the entrants for having the courage to stand up and be counted.

Feargal

Feargal-Brady

Emmet Ryan(left) pictured here beside Feargal Brady of Blueface, Emmet collected the award on behalf of www.ronanlyons.com

Industry news — 1 comment
19
Feb 10

Effective communication evolved: An era of change for telecoms

There’s been lots of talk about VoIP recently and how it has come of age in many ways. The infrastructure required to support voice calls (i.e the broadband landscape) has changed considerably in Ireland over the past 5 years in particular. There is no question that we still have a long way to go and the questions over the sale or privatisation of public infrastructure won’t go away any time soon.

It’s not ideal that a piece of infrastructure which is vital to the economic success, and indeed the very viability, of the state is largely owned by external investors with no vested interest in Ireland Inc’s future. There are excellent arguments to be made around operating the fixed line network as a state owned monopoly, managed by a private company (who are appointed by tender process) and this infrastructure provided to private enterprise in an open access way. This is a system which could foster innovation and real competition in the marketplace rather than the me-too offerings and marketing-led competition which prevails today.

That being said, we’ve gotten to the point where external shocks to the traditional telecoms landscape are producing results which will have far-reaching consequences for telecommunications (which it is quaintly known as for now!). Google Voice is creating quite a stir in the US by taking control of communications away from the traditional operators. This is a similar method to that employed by Blueface in providing a communications service rather than a phone service. AT&T have recommended that the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) put the traditional PSTN out of it’s misery and move to an all-IP network. In some Northern European countries it will not be possible to buy an ISDN line by the end of 2010 – SIP trunks have become standard. And Verizon have just announced full support for Skype on their mobile service with unlimited data plans.

This maelstrom of activity is unprecedented in telecoms history. The entire value chain is moving inexorably away from call-based billing, and a future of free calls is looming very near indeed. So many people have questioned the value of the VoIP operator and whether companies like Blueface can prosper in a world where calls are free. In fact, Blueface have just launched the free calls for life promotion which sees customers paying €199 for a cordless phone and unlimited Irish landline calls for life. How is this sustainable? In Blueface we know where the industry is heading, and we understand exactly what is needed to survive and thrive in the 21st century.

The idea of paying for calls may be dying rapidly but what people want now is a means of managing their communications in a more effective and time-efficient manner. In other words telecoms is becoming a service based business rather than a utility. So in fact we are moving from a commodotised industry with very little differentiation to a service based industry with distinct differentiation. Companies like Blueface are ideally positioned to benefit from this paradigm shift having embraced IP and web enablement many years ago.

So VoIP isn’t just about saving money – although its a very nice side benefit! Its about communicating more effectively and efficiently. We in Blueface hope that you enjoy and benefit from the services we provide, and look forward to providing you with many more over the coming years. The emperor may or may not have any clothes, but n0 one is really looking for the emperor any more!

Feargal

Business News — 2 comments
11
Feb 10

Alan Foy Blueface CEO discusses the new offer on TV3

Blueface CEO, Alan Foy, was invited to Ireland AM on TV3 to discuss our latest special offer: Free Irish Calls for Life.

Support — 1 comment
11
Feb 10

Blueface Fax over IP service explained

Hello everyone,

It has been a while since we last posted. With our latest special offer, “Free Calls For Life“, we have been really busy.

Today, I would like to blog about our fax service which is a really popular service and we get a number of queries about how it works. Importantly, you don’t need a fax machine to use it – it’s a fax to email / email to fax service. It can also be called FoIP (Fax over IP).

fax to email - email to fax

The first point to mention about this is that every Blueface customer can send faxes! The only requirements are to have some call credit with us and a mail client such as Thunderbird or Outlook or a webmail account such as Gmail or hotmail.

If you don’t have call credit you can top up easily, by logging into our website and from the Call History page, access the quick top up section. If you need more information about this, check out help section : Quick Top Up.

Blueface must know your email address before allowing the fax to be sent. This point is often overlooked. You can manage the list of email addresses allowed to send faxes with your account by logging in our website,  then go to “My Account” and in the section regarding faxes you will be able to add new email addresses. It’s a feature we added recently.

If you attempt  to send a fax from an email address we don’t recognise, it will not go through and you won’t be notified. We do receive a notification though and where possible we follow-up with  customers so that they can add the extra email address.

Another problematic point that I noticed by watching the fax server logs is that some customers might try to send faxes to an invalid number (wrong prefix usually), for example instead of 003531xxxx or 01xxxxxx, they would try to send the fax to 3531xxxxx or 1xxxxx.  The idea is : enter the number as you would dial it, for example : 01xxxxxxx@fax.blueface.ie. Right now, a customer may not receive a notification when this occurs but we’ll have this in place shortly.

If a fax sending fails, for example, because the remote fax machine was busy or off line. The sender receives notification.

If you have questions or suggestions about this service, please let us know.

Guillaume

Open Source — Comments Off
08
Jan 10

SIP Sorcery – Open Source SIP experimentation

Blueface CTO, Aaron Clauson, started some years ago a project that allowed mangling with multiple SIP accounts with a single SIP phone. One of the particularities of this project was the fact that it handles only SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) signaling, rather than signaling AND media (ie: audio streams), which enables a fantastic flexibility when it comes to managing calls.

My SIP Switch was born!

My SIP Switch

My SIP Switch

This project has come a long way since its early days. It is now fully open source (freely available online at : SIP Sorcery Source),  regular blog news are posted regularly (SIP Sorcery Blog ) ,  more than 12.000 messages have been posted on the forum and about 1.000 people are using the application online every day.

The name of this project changed to SIP Sorcery recently (June 2009) along with a major backend and frontend update!

SIP Sorcery the Ruby of VoIP.

The great strength of SIP Sorcery resides in its Ruby (programming language) dial plans, out of which an almost endless lists of call related features can be designed by a creative and tech-savvy mind.  The tool can be used for very simple PBX tasks such as “find me follow me” (also called : Call Hunting) or time based call forwarding to more advanced features such as ENUM lookups,  Google Voice integration or Voxeo IVRs integration. These features make of SIP Sorcery one of the best web PBX solutions available and best of all, it’s FREE.

With multiple SIP accounts registered to SIP Sorcery, you can receive and manage the calls from many different phone numbers easily. For outgoing calls, you can chose the SIP account that will be used when dialing out. That’s another great benefit since you can call out using your provider that has the best rate for the actual destination.

SIP Sorcery can be installed on your computer or used directly online. There are still regular improvements and new features added to the software so it is more for experimenting than for a production system as of now but the feedback we are getting from the community of users predicts SIP Sorcery quite a bright future.

Some  famous VoIP related open source projects have become complete products with major added value mainly thanks to their community of users and developers (Asterisk, Open SER, SIP Foundry…). Blueface has been sponsoring My SIP Switch (hardware, website, as well as some development) since the end of 2006 because we believe there is an enormous potential in this application.

sip-sorcery-banner

For more information : My SIP Switch / SIP Sorcery

Guillaume

Business News — 3 comments
06
Jan 10

Blueface kick-starts the Telecoms shake up in 2010

New CEO, Alan Foy
New CEO, Alan Foy is very confident about the year ahead

Blueface, Ireland’s leading internet telecoms company, is set to make some powerful changes in 2010.  Today, the innovative, fast growing technology company announced its first change; the appointment of a new Chief Executive, Mr. Alan Foy.

6th January, 2010 – Dublin, Ireland, Blueface formally announces the appointment of Alan Foy to the role of Chief Executive of Blueface Ltd.   Mr. Foy is charged with creating and building the next phase of growth for Blueface, a young, innovative and dynamic company with an ambitious new strategic direction.   Mr. Foy will lead the management team to create and deliver unique communications products and services to business, residential and wholesale customers in the UK and Ireland.

“There’s lots of very exciting news in Blueface”, Mr. Foy explains, “We have special cutting edge projects in incubation which clearly demonstrate Blueface’s commitment to innovation and to delivering low-cost, 21st century telecoms for all our customers”.  “We also have star players joining the management team both here in Ireland and in the UK to help deliver on Blueface’s ambitious plans and who fit with our company’s entrepreneurial and unique culture”.

Mr. Foy comments that, “Blueface is a home-grown Irish technology company delivering cost savings and great communications functionality to Irish and UK SME’s and residential customers in these challenging economic times”. “We empower our customers to take control of their communications services and to manage the costs involved in ways that most telecoms companies wouldn’t dare to offer.  The customer value proposition of Blueface stacks up now more than ever”.

Residential — Comments Off
23
Dec 09

VAT Update

Blueface would like to update our customers regarding the amended VAT rate which was outlined in the Budget and will come into effect on January 1st 2010. Originally, when the VAT rate was increased to 21.5% in December 08 Blueface did not increase the price of their residential call plans & respective charges and we now plan on reversing that change when the new VAT rate of 21% comes into effect next year.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you a Happy Christmas and Best Wishes for 2010.

Support — Comments Off
23
Dec 09

Blueface Christmas Holiday Support

logo-christmasBlueface will close on Wednesday 23rd December 2009 and will re-open on Monday 4th Jan 2010.

During this time, we will regularly monitor customers queries made by email & on the forum. Support will be via email only support@blueface.ie.

Best Wishes from all at Blueface!

← Older Entries