In an internal file received by The Consumerist, Comcast lays out their new strategy for boosting profits, namely charging more for previously free services, like in-house wiring, or charging more than previously for things like service calls.

Starting this month customers will no longer receive free inside wiring for single-family homes. In fact, Comcast plans to charge separate fees for activation and wiring, and additional fees for any installation that takes longer than 10 minutes.

Previously Comcast provided inside wiring for all single-family homes. There is speculation that this decision alone will drastically increase Comcast profits.

What about the residential consumer?

Guess it doesn’t really matter, the techs never show up anyway.

-Ben Popken

Another commenter, this one a cable technician himself says,

…The problem with many consumerist posts and comments is that they are inherently anti-corporation with no regard that sometimes the corporation isn’t acting in a sinister manner towards the customer, and may simply be attempting to control costs in an increasingly competitive environment.

Either way, it looks like that in addition to no more free inside wiring, Comcast will be charging “custom” work rates for any installation that takes longer than 10 minutes to complete, and charging more for service calls overall.

With the flexibility of VoIP features, it can be overwhelming to keep track of all the innovations and available options. We’ll be discussing the more advanced VoIP features in the future.

First, let’s discuss some of the most helpful basic features:

1. Call Forwarding– Use your VoIP to make sure you get all calls, wherever you are. You can turn on call forwarding to receive VoIP calls at any number.
2. Call Recording– Nearly all VoIP applications have some type of call recording. This can come in handy for recalling important details of a conversation. If your VoIP program does not have a built in call recorder, you can use something stand-alone like HotRecorder.
3. Voice-Mail-to-Email– Many VoIP providers have voicemail that is linked to email, such that you can receive textual versions of your voice mail messages.
4. Call Mapping– With services like Gizmo Project customers can map their calls. To map a call, simply place the caller on hold and click “map it”. You’ll be shown a map indicating the location of your caller.

Verizon Business now offers IP Integrated Access and Verizon Hosted IP Centrex to customers in 6 Australian cities, with it’s latest expansion into Australia.

Australian customers can take advantage of the benefits of Verizon VoIP, while realizing cost effectiveness in transitioning their data and voice services to a single IP platform.

Verizon Business VoIP consolidates data and voice traffic while maintaining a conventional PBX (private branch exchange). This can be particularly useful for those who are establishing a new location, moving, or replacing an old PBX system.

In a converged IP configuration, VoIP can really tie together the functionality of other IP-based solutions, like instant messaging and conferencing. The introduction of Hosted IP Centrex and IP Integrated Access to Australia will certainly help Australian customers grow into the IP world.

There are several VoIP features particularly suited to business communication.

1. Enhanced Voice Mail– If you use VoIP for personal and business calls, advanced voice mail can be a great way to manage the various calls. With enhanced voice mail you can have different voice mail greetings depending on the caller.
2. Find Me, Follow Me– This VoIP feature is also referred to as “call hunting”. This can be a very nifty feature if you move around a lot and can be reached at different numbers. With Find Me, Follow Me you can configure a list of phone numbers to have calls forwarded to, in order, or have all phones ring simultaneously.
3. Customer Service– Using VoIP it’s possible to drastically reduce the cost of providing reliable customer service. Many VoIP clients like Gizmo Project and Skype even have readymade web icons you can insert into your webpage. Users can see if you’re available for calls and are able to contact you with one click.
4. Real-Time Document Editing– Being able to make alterations of documents while you are away from the office can be very handy for those that work with remote clients.
5. Language Translation– For advanced translation, VoIP providers such as Skype have a service that routes calls through to interpreters that can translate the conversation into any one of 150 languages. For those of you looking for something more affordable than the $2.99 / minute translation fee of Skype’s Language Line, they also offer a Universal Chat Translator that translates text in 14 different languages.

Yesterday Google announced the acquisition of Marratech’s video conferencing software. This will enable desktop participation for Googlers when it comes to on-the-fly videoconference meetings wherever there’s an internet connection.

The Marratech Name

The meaning of the name Marratech comes from the root ‘arra’, which is Lappish for ‘meeting place’. The ‘M’ is derived from a protocol in a Marratech product called multicast.

Marratech is known for their exceptional quality of voice and real-time video communication. Accessible to anyone with a laptop and net connection, Marratech’s communication solutions do not require expensive equipment or dedicated facilities.

Google says that they’re looking forward to working with the ingenious engineers of Marratech, the focus being desktop conferencing and development. The Marratech video conferencing branch of Google will continue to be located in Sweden.

For some time, Nokia customers have been accustomed to Nokia advertising regarding N95 devices and the available VoIP services. Now, Orange and Vodafone have decided to deactivate VoIP calls on N95 devices.

The downside of this move is that customers will not be able to run integrated applications such as Truphone. Though such applications may appear to install correctly, customers will find VoIP calls impossible to make, as there simply aren’t any menus for using or configuring VoIP calls.

Stand-alone VoIP applications will still work on N95 devices. Because these services do not require integration, they can be used with N95 devices, but don’t offer quite the rich, seamless experience that integrated VoIP solutions do.

According to RegHardware.co.uk,

Vodafone is saying nothing beyond confirming that the functionality has been removed.

Orange told us that this was not a policy decision and that future handsets might, or might not, have VoIP enabled.