Communications Briefs

Santa Clara, Calif. — Another VoIP company is going out of business and will recommend 8x8 exclusively to its abandoned subscribers.

An 8x8 spokesperson would not reveal the name of the VoIP firm exiting the market, citing contractual obligations. The company did say in a statement announcing the deal that the VoIP firm in question had roughly 12,000 subscribers.

As the undisclosed provider winds down its business over the next three months, 8x8's Packet8 residential VoIP service will be offered up as an alternative to its stranded subscribers. 8x8 will offer these customers a specially priced calling plan, a free month of service and a free Uniden 165P 5.8GHz VoIP phone.

8x8 forged a similar, though not exclusive, deal with SunRocket's liquidators two months ago. That deal netted 8x8 over 20,000 former SunRocket users, the spokesperson said.

San Jose, Calif. — A new Web site is promising free calls, provided they can listen in.

Pudding Media is offering a beta version of its VoIP platform on its Web site, www.puddingmedia.com. The platform monitors a conversation, looking for keywords which, when spoken, will trigger relevant advertising to pop up on a computer screen. It also uses certain demographic information keyed in by a consumer — gender, age range and ZIP code — to ensure relevancy.

According to the company's Web site, calls are not recorded and can't be reconstructed from keywords, nor are any actual humans listening in on the call. It's all done by software.

The company hopes to offer the ad-driven telephony service to mobile carriers, VoIP phone companies and Web publishers.