Vonage has come out with a few workarounds that will be introduced in the next few weeks that would cover two of the disputed “name translation” patents held by Verizon. They are also working on a third.

These proposed workarounds are for technologies related to key points in the VoIP process that connects IP calls to the original phone networks, as well as technology related to email retrieval.

These steps by Vonage, as well as the higher bar set by the patent infringement suit, may help sway the appeals court to overturn the original patent ifringement judgements issued against Vonage.

Today Skype announced hte new Skype 3.2 for Windows. With the new user-friendly interface, Skype users will be able to access several new features to personalize their communications experience.

Skype users can now send money to any Skype contacts using PayPal.

Users can take pictures using their webcams, making it even easier to add pics to user profiles for sharing with others.

Skype users will also be able to import address book information from many other applications, such as Hotmail, Yahoo and GMail.

For more information on features or to download Skype 3.2, take a look at the official Skype 3.2 download page.

Yesterday, Vonage announced that they have named Jamie Haenggi as their new Chief Marketing Officer.

Interestingly, the position of Chief Marketing Officer is a new one for Vonage, geared to unify Vonage’s marketing approach.

Haenggi joined Vonage last fall as Vice President of Customer Life, and was formerly the Vice President of Worldwide Marketing for ADT Security.

It’s whispered that Haenggi surely has her work cut out for her, what with Vonage stripping their marketing budget from $310 million to $110 million.

Jeffrey Citron, Vonage Chairman, Chief Strategist and Interim CEO said,

We’re thrilled that Jamie has agreed to take on this new and challenging role in our organization. We recently launched an aggressive communications effort that positions Vonage head to head against the competition, and Jamie will provide new leadership for this exciting fresh direction.

Who else needs to give VoIP the big thumbs-up before this telecommunications innovation becomes the standard? Surely backing by the U.S. government goes a long way.

As part of the effort to build a strong communications network, the Pentagon is gearing up to adopt VoIP technology.

The U.S. Defense Department has awarded General Dynamics Network Systems with a contract worth over $18 million, to design and install VoIP for the Department of Defense’s Renovation and Construction program office.

The VoIP system designed by General Dynamics Netowrk Systems will provide integrated voice, data and video communications over classified and unclassified DoD networks.

The Wall Street Journal reports that T-Mobile plans to launch a new WiFi program this summer, by which cell phones will be able to roam on Wi-Fi hotspots.

The intention of T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi VoIP plan is to save customer’s monthly minutes as well as clean up indoor reception.

This new Wi-Fi service, dubbed “Hotspot at Home” has already been in testing for the last few months in Seattle. T-Mobile is revving up for national release, probably in June.

With Hotspot at Home, customers will be able to access Wi-Fi VoIP services from their handheld devices when they are in the WiFi range.

That said, T-Mobile has yet to officially reveal the launch of this new service.

Apparently this offer from Skype is good for free international calls to anywhere in the world on Mother’s Day. But don’t get too excited before you peruse the fine print:

1. Offer valid from May 13th 2007, 5.00 am (Eastern Time GMT-5.00) to May 14th 2007 4:59 am (Eastern Time GMT-5.00).
2. Offer reserved for residents of the US and Canada. During the offer, calls originating from the US and Canada placed to mobile and landline telephone numbers will be free.
3. Calls to premium numbers and satellite phones are excluded. SkypeOut calls made as a result of using the “call forwarding” feature are excluded.
4. Offer available to residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia, 18 years of age and older.
5. To qualify for this offer, you must have downloaded the Skype software and you must have a valid and active Skype user name and account. You will not be eligible for this offer if your Skype account is not in good standing.
6. This offer is subject to all U.S. federal, state, and local laws. Void where prohibited, taxed or restricted.
7. To participate in the offer you need to access www.skype.com. A broadband connection is required.
8. If you’re using any service, proxy or other devices preventing Skype from locating you (for example by allocating you an anonymous IP address), or if you otherwise abuse the offer or violate the applicable terms, Skype will charge its normal per minute rates and any other applicable fees (including, without limitation, the connection fee), regardless of the call origination point.
9. Skype asks that you enjoy this offer fairly and sensibly, for your personal and non-commercial purposes. Calls are limited to 200 minutes per computer during the offer period. If you make excessive, systematic or intentional misuse of the offer, Skype reserves the right to terminate your access to your account immediately.
10. Skype reserves the right to suspend, shorten or extend, change or cancel part of all of the offer including these terms at any time at its own discretion at any time without notifying you of such changes.
11. This offer cannot be resold, transferred, or combined with any other offer, discount, or promotion.

Thursday, Skype announced that they would be cutting the cost to send SMS messages until the end of next Tuesday (May 8). This cut in SMS message rates applies to all Skype customers who send SMS messages to recipients in Australia, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States, Ireland, Belgium, Austria, Italy, Poland and Russia.

Experts are unsure whether this move is an attempt to push their mobile devices, or just a deal sweetener for existing Skype customers. Some seem to think this is Skype’s way of luring customers to check out their SMS messaging features.

For more information on the Skype SMS rates go here.

AT&T is beginning to bundle its CallVantage VoIP service with its cell phone services. The first test market trials will run for three months, including AT&T Wireless stores in Central New Jersey and 14 stores in Portland, Oregon.

This is a very competitive move against the VoIP biggies, like Vonage. Of course AT&T’s CallVantage has been a sizeable competitor up against Qwest and Verizon for many years.

Since SBC took over AT&T, they’re more willing to get into local markets and compete. It’s these kinds of multi-service giants that are the real threat to VoIP pioneers like Vonage. And apparently things are just getting started.

Want to try out some VoIP features without having to take the full VoIP leap? Well now Fusion customers can do just that.

Fusion pm Wednesday that it’s expanding services to include IP Call Termination and IP Connect options for their customers.

These VoIP services offer a trial of some of the basic functionality that VoIP has to offer, while keeping telephony as traditional possible for businesses not yet ready to make the switch.

IP Connect

IP Connect takes a business’s local, inter-office, long distance and international calling and merges it into a sinlge IP circuit that’s connected to the existing telephone system.

Matthew Rosen, Fusion’s President and CEO said,

Fusion is pleased to complement our Hosted IP PBX service with multiple options that give businesses maximum flexibility and a virtually risk-free introduction to Internet-based communications. The introduction of these services further establishes Fusion as a key provider in the multibillion dollar IP communications market.

Vonage’s request for a retrial was denied by the U.S. Court of Appeals on Wednesday, because of a landmark patent ruling issued Monday by the Supreme Court.

That said, surely the main development here is that Vonage can now include the new Supreme Court ruling in their pending appeal of the patnet infringement case.

Following the Supreme Court decision on Wednesday, Vonage is arguing that the March 8 patent infringement verdict, in favor of Verizon, should be reconsidered and a new trial granted.

For more information, see this CNet article on the U.S. Appeals Court Decision to Deny Vonages request for retrial.