Vocati Communications, Inc.

Xenialab Web Phone serves the JoeOnTheMove cause for U.S. Troops

Cheyenne WY (USA)-Torino (Italy)

Anyone who has served in the U.S. military can tell you that communication with loved ones and friends can be difficult depending on where you are deployed or stationed around the world.

On September 2008 two active duty U.S. soldiers (Patrick Ayres and Larry Thorpe) founded JoeOnTheMove (JoTM), a no profit association to help U.S. military soldiers around the world to get in touch with their families and friends at home.

Vocati Communications, supporting JoTM since the begin, is now using the Xenialab Web Phone customized to fit with the joeonthemove.com web site.

“We are delighted with the functionality Xenialab was able to include in our webphone offering”, states William McCarthy, CEO of Vocati Communications. “For the last year, we have developed innovative solutions to assist the men and women deployed over seas to communicate to their loved ones back home more easily and at a substantially lower cost.  This webphone represents a whole new platform of communications which meets all of our needs in one cleverly designed package”.

Vocati Communications is now looking at using Xenialab for other projects slated for 2010.  “We have four or five more projects, including some mobile application projects, that we have awarded to Xenialab based on this successful implementation”, said McCarthy. “We are looking forward to continuing to work with the Xenialab team and would recommend them to anyone interested in a VoIP development initiative.”

Andres Acero, the Chief Operating Officer at Vocati said, “At Vocati we are working with developers in the United States and overseas every day.  Not only was Xenialab the easiest company we every dealt with, they also assessed our needs and gave us a solution faster than any other team we have worked with in the past would have been able to do.  The integration they were tasked with was perfect and their follow-up was fantastic.”

“We have been looking for a partner that was capable of delivering products the way that Xenialab has been able to do with this webphone application, and have been very impressed with their professionalism and follow through”, said Larry Thorpe Co-Founder of JoeOnTheMove. “It is fantastic to see this application in use by the troops who are deployed overseas. As we look to the future and develop new applications keeping with our mission here at JoeOnTheMove to provide a one stop shop for all communications needs of  military personnel and their families , we will definitely look to Xenialab of Italy as a provider.”

JoeOnTheMove, Inc. has been working to solve the communications needs of deployed military personnel and their families since 2008 and has been responsible for donating over 1 million free phone call minutes to soldiers in an effort to help them stay in touch with loved ones while deployed.

Patrick Ayres, Active duty US Army soldier and also Co-Founder of JoeOnTheMove said, “This marks the completion of a dream that we have had and been working towards for the last year and a half. We are excited and thrilled that Xenialab of Italy was able to help us realize the vision of being able to provide phone services to the troops that are deployed and in the field. This new webphone provides the ability for troops to make phone calls through any computer with internet access and therefore increases the amount of phones and ability for soldiers to stay connected when they are so far away from home.

“It is pleasure for us to help a no-profit association like JoTM: we like the idea. Even if we contributed to get in touch just one more U.S. soldier with loved ones at home using such new channel, then it means we were able to exploit the Web Phone technology to help someone around the world” states the Xenialab Management Team.

About JoeOnTheMove

JoeOnTheMove was founded in September 2008 by two active duty U.S. soldiers, Patrick Ayres and Larry Thorpe. Larry and Patrick met while stationed in South Korea and quickly identified a common problem found by individuals that serve in the military: the communication to home.
Some JoTM figures:
- 1 million minutes in free phone calls distributed to U.S. military (July 4th, 2009).
- Over 1.5 million Facebook followers in 8 months “Join The Cause“.
- Received non-profit status by Internal Revenue Service February 2010.

http://joeonthemove.com

About Vocati Communications

Vocati is a U.S. based Telecommunication Service Provider. It has a long history of responding to challenges and answering the call to action through their unique One World Program which serves to demonstrate the belief that communication makes the world a smaller place.

http://www.vocaticommunications.com

About Xenialab

Xenialab is the European focal point for the Value Added Applications in the area of UCC (Unified Collaboration and Communication).
The company is located at the I3P Turin Polytechnic University Technology Campus.
In 2009 Xenialab launched the Hand4shake Program and it released the first Wordpress Plugin to manage Web Phone Communications integrated in every Web Browser.
http://www.xenialab.com
mailto: h4s@xenialab.it

Earthquake in Chile – Services Affected

A massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake rocked Chile early Saturday, killing at least 122 people and triggering tsunami warnings for the entire Pacific basin.

Numerous tsunami waves have been reported in the Pacific, with one reaching as high as 7.7 feet in the central Chile coastal town of Talcahuano, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

We are working with our vendors now to assure telecommunications connectivity to the area.  At this time, calls are spotty, but more than half are connecting.  We expect this number to rise over the next few days.

Officials did not give any information on the number of those injured. The full extent of the damage was not yet known, although there were reports of collapsed buildings and hundreds of people in the streets.

The capital of Santiago lost electricity and basic services including water and telephones. Bachelet said regional hospitals had suffered damage; some were evacuated. A major bridge connecting northern and southern Chile was rendered inoperable, and the Santiago airport was shut down for at least the next 24 hours.

Chilean television showed buildings in tatters in Concepcion, with whole sides torn off. At least two buildings there were engulfed in flames, and roads in the city were broken up, video showed.

Television Nacional de Chile reported that only three stories of a 15-story building remained standing.

Numerous aftershocks — including one of magnitude 6.9 — were felt within hours of the initial quake, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

“There are really aftershocks like every hour,” said Felipe Baytelman, speaking to CNN from Santiago.

The quake’s epicenter was located off the coast of Maule, about 200 miles southwest of Santiago. It struck at 3:34 a.m. (1:34 a.m. ET), when most people were sleeping.

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Why pay for bandwidth at a location that is always going down taking your business offline?  Get your turnkey switch, co-located server or PBX with us.  Guaranteed uptime!

Unlike other providers, we do not limit the use of your server.  Use it for whatever you want!  Switch, PBX, Email, Web Servers, VoIP Server, Corporate Switch, Turnkey Calling Card Platform.  We offer it all!

The following configurations and monthly prices are available:

**Free initial configuration setup including trunks and testing to Vocati!

Additional upgrades and changes available upon request.

We will install most major open operating systems on your server.

Available Operating Sytstems

• PBX in a Flash
  

• Trixbox CE 2.x

• A2Billing Calling Card Platform

• Centos 5.2 with Asterisk 1.4 installed

• Freeswitch

• Elastix

• OpenSIPS

• OpenSER

• Plain CentOS, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, or Gentoo

Additional Cost Installations:

• CDRTool

• Media Proxy

• FreeRadius

• Custom Billing or VoIP Services

Server Colocation
Server colocation offered on an individual case basis. Space may be purchased by units of rackspace or cabinets start at $499 per month.

* Free bandwidth offered so long as server is only used for processing VoIP calls on Vocati’s or iCall’s network. Servers using bandwidth over three megabits for calls on other voip providers or hosting will be billed at $50 per Mbit based on 95% network billing rules. IRC is prohibited.

** As a one time courtesy, upon request, Vocati will setup your new server to authenticate with our switch and verify that it is able to make and receive calls. This applies to any VoIP technology. Customer is responsible for final configuration and ongoing management or Vocati can provide consulting services at a pre-agreed rate.  Contact us for more details.

Haiti Services Could Take Months to Fully Restore

We currently are processing about 90% of calls destined to cell phones as the cell phone companies in Haiti have done an excellent job in getting power and connectivity back to the cell phone towers.  When attempting to call Haiti, it is best to use a person’s cellular phone rather than their land line, if possible.

Land lines are still highly affected by the earthquake.  Currently, only about 60% of calls to Land Lines are processing in and around the capital of Haiti.  The rest of the country’s Land Lines are performing better at around 70%.

At this time, we will suspend our regular update of communications to Haiti.  Please feel free to contact us for any additional information.

As of 10:30 PM on January 18th 2010, services to Haiti have been restored to 85% of the affected areas on Cell Phones.  Land Lines are still heavily affected, however we are now connecting up to 50% of attempted calls.

PDD (Post Dial Delay or the time after the call is attempted until the first ring is heard) is still in excess of 8 seconds at times.  Please be patient.

Again, our hearts, thoughts and prayers are with all of those affected by this terrible disaster.

B-Evolved.com and Vocati Communications

B-Evolved.com and Vocati Communications have teamed in the offering of a program called “Minutes for Haiti”.

The aim of the program is to get corporations from around the world to subsidize some communications to family, friends and loved ones in the affected areas of Haiti.  The concept is simple…Sponsors donate a penny a minute for a phone call to Haiti.

For example, companies can donate 1000 minutes to this program.  The cost is $10.00 USD.  B*Evolved and Vocati Communications then connect people wanting to call Haiti with their loved ones in Haiti.  The entire program is underwritten by these sponsors.  Sponsors will be listed on both websites as the program evolves.

It is important to note that there is NO PROFIT TAKEN by either Vocati Communications or B*Evolved for this initiative.  We look at this as our responsibility as citizens of our planet.  We will not profit on the misfortunes of others or acts of God.

If you or your company is interested in contributing to this program, please visit www.b-evolved.com or write haiti@vocaticommunications.com

At Vocati Communications, we are not setup to efficiently process direct donations to the recovery efforts in Haiti.  I want to thank each and everyone who has offered to send donations directly to us, but we are not setup to make effective use of these donations.  Instead, President Barack Obama just published a letter to the public with a link for people who want to make donations to these recovery efforts.  We ask that if you want to donate money, please use the link in his letter below to process these donations.

If you are a telecommunications provider, carrier or retailer and would like to assist us in this effort with interconnections, available channels or some other capacity, please send an email to haiti@vocaticommunications.com.

From the President of the United States of America

Good Afternoon,

The reports and images from Haiti of collapsed hospitals, crumbled homes, and men and women carrying their injured neighbors through the streets are truly heart-wrenching. As we learn more about the extent of the devastation, our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti and Haitian Americans around our country who do not yet know the fate of their families and loved ones back home.

I have directed my Administration to respond with a swift, coordinated and aggressive effort to save lives. The people of Haiti will have the full support of the United States Government in the urgent effort to rescue those trapped beneath the rubble and to deliver the humanitarian relief — the food, water and medicine — that Haitians will need in the coming days.

This is also a time when we are reminded of the common humanity that we all share, and Americans have always responded to these situations with generosity of spirit. If you would like to support the urgent humanitarian effort in Haiti, I encourage you to visit our website where you can learn more about how to contribute:

http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/HaitiEarthquake

Americans trying to locate family members in Haiti are encouraged to contact the State Department at (888) 407-4747.

We will continue to stand with the people of Haiti and keep them in our thoughts and prayers.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama

Looking for Loved Ones in Haiti?

We have received some emails and phone calls from people looking for loved ones in Haiti after yesterday’s earthquake.

There are two sources we have found so far that may be able to assist.

First, If you’re worried about a family member who may have been in the quake, contact the U.S. State Department Operations Center at 1-888-407-4747.

Second, Join the EARTHQUAKE HAITI group on Facebook if you’re looking for loved ones in Haiti.

We hope these resources can be helpful to you.

The B*Evolved Team led by Julie Bartleson has graciously agreed to assist Vocati Communications and any other communications company interested in connecting friends and loved ones in the aftermath of the tragedy in Haiti today.

B*Evolve’s Elizabeth Mcdonald is arranging an emergency meeting at 10 PM Pacific Time (1 AM Eastern Time) to discuss our plans in the coming days and months to assist both on the ground in Haiti and here in the United States.

In addition, we have mobilized persons in Colombia, Mexico and the Dominican Republic to lend a hand.

As plans evolve on this project, we will make updates on this page.  If anyone is interested in assisting us, please send an email to haiti@vocaticommunications.com

At 8:14 PM Eastern Time today we re-routed all calls destined for Haiti through Brazil.

We are now completing over 70% of calls into the country of Haiti and are assessing long term communications strategies for the coming days and weeks.

If there is anyone in need of calling Haiti, we can reserve a channel for you and try to get a call through.  We will try and get messages to family and friends in the event that we can not complete your call.  For more information, please send an email to haiti@vocaticommunications.com