Global IP Sound raises more money
The voice engine behind Skype, Global IP Sound sold 3.5 million shares and raised $6.38 million for its Asian expansion efforts. The company also said that Logitech, Net2Phone, WebEx and Teleo will begin deploying GIPS enabled products later this year. Symbian-based VoIP clients are on their way as well. (More) As I said earlier, voip/telecom-related companies are beginning to interest investors.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
The monopoly of GIPS in wideband codec may be due to market’s lack of information. There is an open source, free codec Speex that is available in Xten and Asterisk. I understand that its quality is very good. Indeed, it can be used even for 22 kHz band. I am told by Erik that Yahoo IM will also use this codec. (Naturally, given that they may end up using Xten platform.)
While Speex is open source and free, there are frequently questions and debates over the ownership of the intellectual property behind it. The code may be free, but it is unclear if the IP is patent protected. Thus, dependence on Speex means acceptance of that risk.
The GIPS package is more than codecs.