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TELECOMS TAP INTERNET

Voice-over-Internet-protocol, or VoIP, is the hottest technology going among Colorado telecommunications companies. Raindance Communications Inc., a Louisville provider of Web-based and audio conferencing services, said recently it has secured its first VoIP patent, and Qwest Communications International Inc., said it has begun first-phase deployment of VoIP services to residential customers in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., the first major telecommunications provider to offer VoIP services to residential customers. Richard C. Notebaert, Qwest chairman and CEO, said VoIP is more than just the next new thing. "The future of voice communications will be based on the Internet," said Notebaert. "According to TeleGeography 2004, a California research firm, VoIP providers carried only 150 million minutes of international telephone calls in 1998, less than two-tenths of a percent of the world's international traffic. By 2002, cross-border VoIP traffic had grown to just under 19 billion minutes, about 11 percent of world international traffic.

RED HEN UNVEILS MAPPING SOFTWARE

Fort Collins-based Red Hen Systems Inc. has developed software that allows automatic mapping of the locations of pictures taken on new photo-cell-phones. The company said its application will bring an entirely new set of capabilities to a wide range of users including first responders, municipalities and law enforcement. "In emergency management situations, for example, this technology will provide decision makers with more descriptive, real-time situational assessments," said Ken Burgess, CTO at Red Hen Systems. That "will enable a quicker, more coordinated response." Once Red Hen software is loaded into the camera phone and activated, the program attaches spatial metadata from the Global Positioning System to the captured image. Using the e-mail application in the phone, pictures and their locations can then be sent moments after being taken.

CUSTOMER-SUPPORT PAY STAGNATES

Help Desk Institute, a Colorado Springs-based membership association for service and support professionals, said its 2003 salary survey

showed decreases or little change in salaries for customer-support personnel over the past year, and no return to higher salaries reported in 2001. The survey found: Entry level salaries averaged $26,648; managers averaged $61,149. Other findings: 72 percent of entry-level workers earned between $21,000 and $35,000; 49 percent of...