Team AireSpring is walking for a cure to Cystic Fibrosis. On June 1, 2013, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is holding a 5K Great Strides fundraising walk in Santa Monica, California, and Team AireSpring will be there to participate and raise money for cystic fibrosis research.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a devastating genetic disorder that affects tens of thousands of children and young adults in the United States and around the world. The disease primarily affects the lungs and digestive system, shortening the life span of those affected. In the past, children diagnosed with CF rarely survived long enough to see elementary school; today, thanks to advances in medical research and treatments, people with the disorder can expect to live into their late thirties and beyond.

Despite these advances, there is currently still no cure for CF. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation was founded in 1955 and is the world leader in the search for a cure, funding more research than any other organization. Its work has made a huge difference in the lives of those who live with CF. Many of the treatments for CF are made possible by the Foundation and its research and care has vastly improved the quality of life for those affected.

Though CF is a deadly illness, its rarity means that there is currently no federal funding allocated to find a cure. As a nonprofit organization, the Foundation relies on fundraising events to help raise the money necessary to support its ongoing research. Great Strides is the most successful of these events, with many walks around the country, including six in southern California.

For AireSpring, cystic fibrosis is a very personal issue. Two of our team members have family that have been affected by the disease, including our Senior Vice President of Customer Operations Vicky Weatherwax, who has two grandsons, Atticus and Emmerich, who were born with CF. These brave young boys must undergo treatment every day to prevent the progression of the disease and the family dreams of a bright future where the children can live a long and happy life without being tethered to machines.

Are you planning on picking up the phone to give mom a call this Sunday? If so, you won't be alone; Mother's Day is traditionally the busiest holiday of the year for telephone calls. Check out the infographic below for some more interesting phone-based facts and figures related to Mother's Day.

The era of T1 is drawing to a close according to a new survey by Infonetics Research. In a study of almost 300 enterprises, the percentage of companies using SIP trunking is set to surpass those using T1 lines by 2015. The percentage of surveyed enterprises using SIP trunking is expected to grow from 38% to 58% by 2015, while the percentage using T1 lines will see a reduction from 71% to 55%.

Most companies using SIP trunking make the PBX connection natively in order to keep the costs down and only 31% of the businesses surveyed made the connection via premise-based enterprise session border controllers (SBCs). Respondents named over 20 different providers who they use or plan to use, showing how open the growing SIP trunking market is currently.

As for those companies not planning to deploy SIP trunking in the next few years, the most common reasons why were satisfaction with their current voice services and their existing service contract not being up for renewal.

“We surveyed close to 300 businesses about their SIP trunking and enterprise SBC plans and one trend is clear: SIP trunking adoption is growing as businesses seek to improve the reliability and lower the cost of communication services,” Diane Myers, author of the study and principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS at Infonetics Research, said.

It’s no surprise that more and more companies are making the switch to SIP trunking. As Myers notes, SIP trunking can substantially lower operating costs compared to other communication solutions. It also delivers high-quality VoIP service that’s easy to use and comes packed with powerful features. From SMB to Enterprise businesses, AireSpring SIP trunking is fully scalable to provide you with the next generation communication solutions today. There’s no need to wait for 2015; get a jump start by making the switch to SIP trunking with AireSpring.

AireSpring prides itself on cutting edge technology, having received numerous awards and accolades for its MPLS and Hosted IP PBX products. However, our company name Aire‘Spring’ has long confused our customers. No more! Today, we announce that we will put more “Spring” into the multi-billion dollar sleep industry as we combine the best of telecommunications and comfort with the release of the world’s first Cloud Hosted IP-Enabled Mattress product. AireSpring’s Cloud Hosted IP-enabled mattress will provide slumbering customers with features never before seen in late night support.

We invite you to be among the first to experience this revolutionary sleep expereince.

Features:

•           Cloud hosted slumber support
•           IP-enabled for maximum interoperability
•           Supports gigabit Ethernet for highest internet powered sleep cycles in the industry
•           Sandman power regulation for lowest energy usage
•           Real-time conversion of analog sleep to next-generation IP sleep patterns
•           Share your mattress on Facebook and Twitter (LinkedIn support coming soon)

Product intended for residential and small business customers. High volume enterprise-class product coming soon. Orders will be accepted on a first come, first slept basis. Mattresses can be downloaded from AireSpring.com beginning April 1^st, 2013.

Spring cleaning doesn't have to stop at clearing out closets and dusting off desks. Take a look at AireSpring's infographic for some suggestions on how you can freshen up your business phone system and keep it up to date with current demands.

In a new press release today, AireSpring has announced plans to deploy Metaswitch Accession technology on its popular AirePBX product. What does that mean for you? With Accession Communicator, you can make high quality voice and video calls from smartphones and tablets over 3G, 4G, or Wi-Fi networks while presenting your same “twinned” enterprise phone number. You can move in-progress calls with clients seamlessly between any and all of your devices, including iPad, iPhone, Android, PC, desk phone, or cellular device.

This technology allows you to take advantage of the growing Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) trend by linking your mobile devices to the office phone system and receiving all of your voicemail, faxes, and video messages without having to be at your desk. If you’re using AireSpring’s MPLS products, then you can simply layer AirePBX over AireSpring’s advanced next generation IP network, providing you with the flexibility, security, and rapid scalability you need.

As a leading provider of fully managed cloud communications and business phone systems, AireSpring continues to lead the industry in providing the latest telecommunications solutions. This news comes from the show floor of the 2013 Channel Partners Expo where AireSpring is in attendance. Come visit us at booth 5024 where you can chat with our knowledgeable staff and enter for a chance to win prizes such as $2000 and an iPad Mini.

The full press release can be found here.

The 2013 Channel Partners Expo begins today in Las Vegas, Nevada and AireSpring is starting it off with a bang. The Telecom Association, a national professional membership organization of over 3,800 Telecom industry professionals, honored AireSpring with eight awards, making it the most highly awarded carrier of all time by the organization. AireSpring was voted the top provider for “Cloud Hosted IP PBX,” “SIP Trunking,” “Internet,” “Wholesale Data,” and “Wholesale Long Distance.” Additionally, AireSpring was voted a top five telecom carrier in the country for “Call Center Telecom,” “CLEC,” and “Data Reseller.”

Those of us here at AireSpring are proud and honored to be the recipients of these awards. With these awards, AireSpring continues to rank as the top next generation carrier and managed services provider for managed network and cloud services, while consistently offering affordable advanced services such as PBX, MPLS, VoIP, and SIP Trunking all on its enhanced IP network. If you’re in Vegas this week for the Channel Partners Expo, be sure to stop by booth 5024 in the exhibit hall and celebrate the good news with us. You can even enter to win a prize of your own as we’ll be giving away $2000 and an iPad Mini!

Read the full press release here.

With Presidents' Day this week, those of us here at AireSpring got to thinking about just how much communication has changed over the years. Here's an infographic look at the types of communication technology used by different presidents, from the first to the current.

Apps are all the rage these days. If you have a smartphone or a tablet, then you’re undoubtedly familiar with them and likely have a screen full of the little critters. People can’t get enough of apps; over 40 billion apps have been downloaded from Apple’s App Store, for example, and, with half of those downloads occurring in 2012 alone, it’s clear that app popularity is only increasing.  

Whether you’re looking for a quick way to check your email, kill a few minutes with a fun game, catch up on the news, or edit that photo you just took, it seems that there’s an app for just about everything these days. So when it comes to managing your office phone and calls it should come as no surprise that there’s an app for that too.

You may be familiar with the web browser-based version of CommPortal for your Cloud Hosted IP PBX, but did you know that it’s also available as a handy app? It’s true; you can download the CommPortal Assistant app to your computer and access all your favorite features quickly and conveniently right from your desktop. You can search and dial contacts, receive notifications of incoming calls or new messages, and use Call Manager to set how your calls will be handled.

Available by simply logging into CommPortal in your browser, clicking on the Apps tab, and choosing to download it, CommPortal Assistant is recommended for all users as an easy way to take advantage of the power offered by your Cloud Hosted IP PBX.

Of course, if you’re a true app connoisseur, then you’ll be glad to hear that there’s a wide range of other apps for you to try out. Separate apps give you the power to manage and dial your contacts, handle your voicemail, and review your recent call activity. In addition, there are two other apps that have some exciting possibilities: Call Me Buttons and QuickDial Accelerator.

When the White House pledged to respond to any petition that gathered 25,000 signatures on its We the People web site, it probably wasn’t expecting that it would receive a proposal to build a Death Star. Still, the government followed through on responding to the request for construction of the Star Wars super weapon, with a humor-laced response that pointed out the problems involved in such a project. Sadly for all science-fiction fans, the White House rejected the proposal as it pointed out that a Death Star would cost $850 quadrillion, was in opposition to the administration’s stance of not blowing up planets, and was fundamentally flawed since the battle station could be taken out by a single starship.

While we can all have a good laugh at this tongue-in-cheek reply, the reasons listed for the proposal’s rejection provide a good guide for evaluating any new technology. I think we can all agree on being against blowing up planets, but the relevance of the other points might not be immediately clear. Your business probably isn’t operating with a budget in the quadrillion range or worrying about fending off attacking starships. However, the basic principles of cost and security are essential to the adoption of any new system.

Instead of a technological terror like the Death Star, let’s consider how these principles apply to AireSpring's breakthrough MPLS Mesh product. For organizations with multiple locations that require T1 and higher speed data networks, along with secure private network security, MPLS Mesh is the ultimate choice. MPLS allows your data traffic to move securely between locations on either a single IP network or multiple secure networks that segment the data. With next level Voice over MPLS, you can also use the secure network to handle your voice traffic as well.

Since MPLS is a virtual private network (VPN), you don’t have to worry about “single starship” threats such as viruses or interceptions from the public Internet breaching your shields. MPLS Mesh is a fully managed solution, which means all the complexity is handled by AireSpring. You get to enjoy a secure working product without having to worry about the security and maintenance needed to keep it safe and running.

Furthermore, the ability to destroy a planet send your data and voice traffic securely is available at significantly less than $850 quadrillion. Typical MPLS deployments have suffered from the need for all nodes on the network to be covered by the same carrier, resulting in increased costs for certain areas or no coverage at all for other nodes on your network. However, AireSpring’s MPLS Mesh allows you to pick and choose a separate carrier for each location based upon network availability and price. AireSpring meshes all those networks together to create the lowest cost for the highest quality service, so you won’t have to take up a side job smuggling spice on the Kessel Run to pay for it.

This holiday season saw thousands of unlucky souls stuck at the airport for hours as flight after flight was delayed due to the fierce winter storms. Whether you were unfortunate enough to be one of these individuals or if you’ve experienced similar problems in the past, we all know that the sad truth is that flight delays are just a fact of life. Many of us at one time or another have arrived at the airport exactly on time and made our way to the gate only to find that we suddenly have an hour or more of extra time to kill.

It’s an annoying situation for anyone, but especially tedious for anyone with a tight schedule and a heavy workload. Even if you plan ahead to get work done while waiting, you are limited by the fact that you can’t bring your entire office phone system with you to the airport. Or can you?

Thanks to cloud technology, you can access these services from anywhere without them being physically present. Take, for example, the Cloud Hosted IP PBX. Since this system delivers service through a provider maintained cloud rather than a physical in-office network, you have much more flexibility in how you access it.

One of the key components of this system is the online CommPortal, which lets you manage your calls and other features. You can use CommPortal to forward your office calls to your cell phone, as well as place calls from your cell that show as coming from your office number, which allows you to respond to important calls as they come in instead of letting them pile up while you’re trapped in a terminal. You can even catch up on your voicemails, either by listening to them through CommPortal itself or setting up the option to have them forwarded as WAV files to your email address.

While you probably won’t want to bring a fax machine to the airport, you can still receive faxes through CommPortal. Faxes can either be viewed as PDF files or forwarded to an email as TIF files, depending on your preference.

T1 was the first true broadband connection for businesses and its availability and reliability mean that it is still in frequent use today. However, the needs of businesses have changed drastically since T1 first appeared on the scene in 1962. A modern company now finds itself dealing on a daily basis with high resolution video, cloud based applications, presentations packed with multimedia, and an endless stream of emails with long lists of attachments. In the face of these big data demands, the 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth offered by good old T1 just isn’t enough to keep up with most modern offices.

One answer to this hunger for more bandwidth is Ethernet over Copper, often simply referred to as EoC. While EoC uses the same copper line twisted pairs as a T1, more efficient modulation allows it to deliver greater speeds. EoC is also priced much lower than T1 per Mbps and you can easily get twice the bandwidth for the same price.

Where this becomes really important is scaling. You can increase bandwidth with a T1 connection by simply adding more lines in a process known as bonding. This becomes problematic, however, as each line must be installed individually at the same cost for each. So, if you want three times the bandwidth with T1, then you have to install three times the lines and pay three times the cost.

For EoC, scaling is much more efficient as bandwidth rises at a much greater rate than the pricing. You can get a standard 10 Mbps over EoC at about the same cost (or perhaps even less) than a single T1. As your business’ bandwidth needs increase, EoC can rise to meet them without becoming prohibitively expensive.

Does EoC sound like the perfect solution? There are some issues to keep in mind. While EoC travels over the existing telephone wire that most businesses already use, it does depend on your business being close to a telco central office that has EoC equipment installed. As you move further away from the central office, EoC speeds generally decrease. For that reason, EoC simply isn't available everywhere. Fortunately, many business locations are situated close to central offices. 

The end of the year is a time for being merry, spreading good cheer, and, of course, making completely unfounded predictions. Here at AireSpring, we’ve pulled out the old Magic 8 Ball to give you an exclusive glimpse into the future of the telecommunications industry. So, without further ado, here are our five predictions for 2013:

1. 2013 will be the year of the hosted PBX as more and more businesses joyously embrace the efficiency and savings of a managed phone solution.

2. Companies with two or more locations will experience a sudden revelation that MPLS isn’t as confusing as they think. This epiphany will lead a greater number of companies to take advantage of a secure, multi-location network.

3. 2013 will also be the year of the cloud. Hey, we never said the year could only be about one thing! Expect to see the cloud everywhere, especially in the office as Cloud Hosted IP PBX brings a new level of flexibility to office communications. Bring your umbrellas and watch out for rain!

4. An increasing amount of high bandwidth video traffic will force companies to abandon their old DSL and T-1 connections. In their time of need, these companies will turn in record numbers to high speed dedicated Internet and Ethernet over Copper to deliver the bandwidth that their business demands and at increasingly lower rates.

With the Mayan calendar counting down to the end of the world on December 21, 2012, it’s time to ask yourself: Is your business prepared to survive the apocalypse? Perhaps you’ve already dug out a bomb shelter beneath your office building and stockpiled enough coffee to keep the entire office staff functioning while civilization collapses. If not, then you still have time to prepare for the end by making the jump to cloud based communications. Even if the Mayans got it wrong, it’s still a wise move to switch to the cloud to prepare your business for a disaster of the non-world-ending variety.

The key to maintaining communications continuity in the event of a disaster is to make sure communications can continue uninterrupted. If your business has a physical PBX on site, then you’re in danger of finding yourself cut off when a disaster strikes, regardless of whether it’s a hurricane or a giant meteor falling from space. Instead, by switching to a Cloud Hosted IP PBX, you protect your phone system from damage to your specific office location.

With a Cloud Hosted PBX, should the unfortunate happen, employees can access their phones from anywhere they have an Internet connection. So if they can’t make it to the office, either because of fierce weather or because the street outside has turned into a river of lava, then they can still make and receive calls from their business number from anywhere that’s available and safe. This allows your employees to remain in contact with each other and with customers in order to provide continuous service.

You can also access all of the phone system’s features through the online “CommPortal” and use the Call Manager to forward all calls to any phone of your choice. This is extremely handy when you find yourself, say, having to suddenly flee from an alien invasion and don’t want to miss that important call. Simply have all calls forwarded to your cell phone and stay connected on the go.

Whether the Mayan’s were off track with their calendar or not, disasters are unfortunately going to continue to be a problem for businesses the world over. As with most things, prevention is the best cure and switching to a Cloud Hosted IP PBX system is a great way to ensure your business communications remain up and running regardless of what the universe throws your way.

More and more business are taking advantage of local and long distance SIP trunking to combine voice and data traffic and get powerful features at a fraction of the cost of a PSTN solution. If this sounds like something you’re interested in for your business, then you’re probably wondering: what do I need to get the benefits of SIP trunking? As it turns out, not a lot. If you already have an IP PBX system in your office, then you may be able to use your existing phone system. Since there’s little physical installation beyond the PBX, your provider can get you up and running in only a day or two.

Still, while it’s nice to know that your provider will take care of everything, it can be helpful to educate yourself about the features of SIP trunking. There’s definitely a lot to learn, but unfortunately most of it is displayed on websites in long lists of technical terms. Some features such as support for E911 and 411 directory assistance are self-explanatory, but others seem to require a degree in tech jargon, especially for those of you who don’t do business in a technical industry.

Let’s face it, you’re busy. Busier than you’ve ever been perhaps. You’ve got a desk phone, a cell phone (or two), a home phone and some of you even keep a Skype or other VoIP number as well. When you are out and about, how do your callers find you? Do you list all your numbers on your business card? Are you frustrated checking 4 voice mail boxes throughout the day? There’s got to be an easier way! Thankfully, there is.

Many new hosted phone systems, such as AireSpring’s Cloud Hosted IP PBX, offer ‘Find Me/Follow Me’ features which track you down to deliver the call. When a call comes in, you can have your office, cell, and home phones ring, all together or in sequential order, which means your phone system tracks you down rather than the caller having to do all the work. There are clear benefits to making sure you never have to worry about missing calls when you’re away from your office phone.

As the cold and wet days of winter come upon us, businesses will find themselves victim to a different kind of virus. But this threat isn’t a new kind of computer virus. In fact, it’s something that has been around since the dawn of mankind . . . the common cold.

Every year, the winter season sees an increase in the number of employees out sick. A recent study by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder found that 31% of employers reported increased employee absences around the winter period, with December being the highest ranked month in terms of sick days taken. Influenza is also a contributing factor. The flu season usually peaks around January or February and approximately 5-20% of people in the U.S. get the flu every year.

When the common cold strikes it can be just as damaging as a computer virus, since sick employees can’t come into the office due to the risk of infecting others even if they feel able to work. While there isn’t a cure for the common cold yet, there is a solution for the symptom of lost productivity it causes. By using a cloud-based phone system, a business doesn’t need to have all its employees physically in the office. With a Cloud Hosted IP PBX from AireSpring, an employee can even take their business phone home to make and receive calls, without the danger of infecting the rest of the workplace. These new technologies give businesses more options on how to manage employee absences and can help them survive cold season.