Update 5/8/08: Even more blogs added at the end. Thanks for all of your suggestions!

When was the last time you looked for expert advice on a blog about VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) or WiMAX (the successor to WiFi)? Or, perhaps you sought an antique telephone or the latest gizmo that could connect you to your Aunt Sally through the Internet. The telecom industry has changed dramatically over the past few decades, and blogs provide one way to keep up with with transitions from traditional technology to the latest connectivity.

To that end, the following 100 120 sites represent the most popular, unusual, informative and useful blogs within the telecom industry. The sites listed below are in alphabetical order beneath each category heading. While the sites are numbered, the numbering does not indicate any order of value.

VoIP | Corporate Blogs | Mobile Blogs | Wireless Blogs | Outside the U.S. | Niche | Toys and Gadgets | Updated: More Blogs!

VoIP

We’ve chosen the best and most active VoIP blogs on the ‘Net for your satisfaction. If you’re looking for product-specific blogs (such as Skype), look at the next category for corporate blogs, where you’ll find a variety of VoIP blogs offered through company resources.

  1. About VoIP: Sharla Sikes covers industry news, products, legislation and regulation, business trends and more in this easy-to-read for-the-masses VoIP blog.
  2. Asterisk VoIP News: This blog is devoted solely to news, developers’ notes, case studies and other information for and about the Asterisk Open Source PBX and telephony platform.
  3. Digital Common Sense: Ken Camp covers communications in a broad sense, but he leans toward VoIP. Therefore, he’s found a slot in this category. Camp has more than 25 years of experience in information technology. He spent seventeen years with AT&T and Lucent Technologies. As an independent consultant, his primary focal areas include “network performance improvement, security practices and the design and deployment of integrated voice and data solutions.” Plus, he has pictures of Jeff Pulver (#16) rocking out in San Jose.
  4. Disruptive Telephony: From the tagline: “Dan York on how Voice over IP is rewriting (almost) everything you thought you understood about telephony…” York is the Director of Emerging Communication Technology for Voxeo and is also on the board of VOIPSA.
  5. Fractals of Change: Tom Evslin’s career has taken him from nerd to CEO to novelist and consultant with a brief stop as Transportation Secretary for the State of Vermont, so don’t expect his blog to be totally VoIP. But, Evslin and his wife, Mary, founded ITXC Corp. in 1997. That NASDAQ-listed company grew from a startup to the world’s leading provider of wholesale VoIP and one of the largest carriers of international voice minutes of any kind by the time it was acquired in 2004.
  6. GigaOM: Om Malik founded this blog that covers technology news,analysis and opinions on topics ranging from broadband to online games, Web 2.0 and the wireless industry to VoIP. Malik covered telecom as a senior Business 2.0 writer in 2006, and the Voice/VoIP section of this blog reflects Malik’s expertise.
  7. IP Business: When you go to this link, look to the left to find three different VoIP blogs, by writers Gary Kim, Hunter Newby and Scott Wharton. Kim is a founder of Dagda Mor Media and its Chief Operating Officer, and he is Editor in Chief of IP Business and ChannelVision. Newby is the Chief Strategy Officer and a Director of a Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation based in New York City that is focused on the communications industry. Wharton has been BroadSoft’s Vice President of Marketing since 1999. All three men bring a distinctive voice to the VoIP industry.
  8. Jon Arnold’s Blog: Arnold is an independent analyst/consultant focused on the IP communications sector, based out of Toronto, Ontario. Before he began this stint as the principal of J. Arnold & Associates, he was the VoIP Program Leader at the industry analyst firm, Frost & Sullivan. So, as he says, he’s “had a good run in this space since its coming of age.” Arnold’s blog proves that he is one of the most authoritative voices in VoIP today.
  9. Latest Geek Stuff: This blog is all VoIP, and it’s filled with reviews, opinions, news, insights, and the latest scoops on any VoIP service you can imagine.
  10. LucaFiligheddu.com: Luca is a recognized expert in the VoIP market. He’s now CEO at Abbeynet, an Italian company which develops technologies and services in the field of IP Communications since 1999. Luca shares his interests on VoIP, Web 2.0 and everything that is internet and technology on his blog, while he keeps a roving eye on other VoIP bloggers and the industry as a whole, making connections and providing astute observations.
  11. Mr. Blog: David Beckemeyer speaks his mind about VoIP and offers a unique take here. From the about page: “In my formal research, I can’t always discuss less than fully formed ideas. But formality be damned here. Maybe I can be a little controversial.”
  12. Saunderslog.com: Alec Saunders is the CEO of iotum Inc. out of Ottawa, Ontario, an Internet telephony service company. His blog posts are a mix of VoIP technology and Web news, interviews and updates. A visit to his site reveals what could be described as a visit to a bulletin board about all things VoIP.
  13. Skype Journal: Phil Wolff, Jim Courtney and other writers love to review “stuff.” So they cover any and all Skype or Skype-related hardware, software and technical constructs such as APIs, protocols and specs. The posts are detailed, and the news goes beyond Skype to include all types of VoIP-related topics.
  14. Solomon’s VoIP World: Solomon Ige covers VoIP Tech, IP and VoIP telephony, and VoIP solutions in his well-respected blog, along with contributors Linda Umolu and Olusola Oyewola.
  15. Stuart Henshall’s Blog: Stuart Henshall founded the Skype Journal blog, and he’s a consultant to companies that want to expand into new media. So, readers will find a mix of VoIP news and commentary alongside social media news.
  16. The Jeff Pulver Blog: Jeff Pulver is the founder of Pulver.com, and he is one of the pioneers of the VoIP industry from the early 1990s. He founded the VON (Voice On the Net), and he also is a leader in the emerging Internet TV industry. Today, he urges the VoIP industry to move beyond its telco-like business model toward social media. Named by Business Week as one of their 2003 Tech Gurus, Pulver is committed to the future of IP communications and is featured often in the media as true expert in his field.
  17. Voice over IP Weblog: A number of writers contribute to this blog, which gives its format variety and punch with the addition of humor, video, news, graphics and reviews. The writers aren’t CEOs, but they’re all Web and VoIP evangelists, which counts.
  18. VoIP Blog - Tehrani.com: While other bloggers might hand out VoIP news on a platter, Rich Tehrani digs in with a knife and fork to get to the bottom of that news. Tehrani is also Group Editor-in-Chief of Customer Interaction Solutions (CIS) Magazine. Launched in 1982, CIS is the first publication in the world to cover call centers and CRM. Tehrani founded the first magazine focused on VoIP in 1998 and, as President of TMC, is the owner of the registered trademark for the term Internet Telephony. More recently he launched TMC’s two newest titles, SIP Magazine and IMS Magazine.
  19. VoIP Central: You won’t find any information about this blog’s administrators, but VoIP Central has become known as one of the more active news sources on new VoIP products and services. Blog readers also can contribute content as well as comments.
  20. VOIP IP Telephony: Three contributors write several posts per day on every type of VoIP service, IP PBX, open source VoIP and Billing itself as “the single destination” for every type of VoIP discipline, this blog has a lot to live up to. And it does a good job, with multiple posts per day covering VoIP, IP telephony, IP PBX, open-source VoIP and more.
  21. VoIP Monitor: Curtis Sund, along with writer Judson Skoog-Smith and advertising/marketing specialist Birgit Schelzel provide readers with news, analysis, information and opinions relating to Voice over IP (VoIP) and Internet telephony through this blog.
  22. VoIP Princess Blog: In 2005 Andy Abramson (#22) dubbed Carolyn Schuk as the VoIP Princess. Hence, the princess who calls with her VoIP. Schuk also makes a showing with her technical writing in Bay Area Business Woman, Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal and Voxilla.com.
  23. VoIP Security Blog: Mark Collier saw a niche for information about VoIP security issues and filled it with this blog. Collier is CTO of the voice security and management company, SecureLogix Corp., so his perspective is especially valuable. Collier also is a member of VOIPSA (Voice Over IP Security Alliance).
  24. VoIP Watch: Andy Abramson is the founder of Comunicano, a PR and marketing consulting firm that has gravitated to the Internet telephony market. His VoIP Watch blog targets news and analysis about VoIP issues.

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Corporate Blogs

The blogs in this category belong to major commercial telecom companies or to individuals who hold high positions within major commercial businesses and corporations. Some blogs listed here are concerned with a specific product or service.

  1. Ask the VoIP Specialists: This blog is the voice of Avad Technologies, a VoIP business specialist company. But, it’s also the voice of many other VoIP experts, some of whom are listed on this page.
  2. Cisco’s Mobility Blog: Cisco provides a blog that covers various portions of the industry. Looking at the blog from the home page, it appears productive. However, if you’re into Cisco’s perspective on “mobility,” for instance, you might be slightly disappointed. That part of Cisco’s blog network is sparse. On the other hand, the “Web Experience” blog seems much more active.
  3. Communications: Written by Brough Turner, Chief Technology Officer at NMS Communications. This blog offers “Brough’s writings on the technology, economic and social issues of communications at the intersection of telecom, mobility and the Internet.”
  4. Global Crossing Blog: Global Crossing experts and special guests podcast and blog their views on industry trends and technologies in VoIP, but the tagline suggests that IP convergence is the real focus here.
  5. Going WiMAX: Ari Zoldan, founder & CEO at Quantum Networks, LLC, A WiMax Company, is the head writer for this blog. Readers can find entries posted under such topics as “Analyses and Speculations” and “Word on the Street Is…,” so expect a mix of commentary and WiMAX-style gossip.
  6. Irwin Lazar’s “Real-Time” Blog: Irwin Lazar is the principal analyst and program director for unified communications and collaboration at Nemertes Research. His background is in network operations, network engineering, voice-data convergence, and IP telephony, which may be why he blogs about VoIP, unified communications, presence, and collaboration.
  7. JAJAH Blog: The JAJAH blog is focused on their product, of course, and how it will help their current and potential customers and developers. But occasionally they’ll spread wings to talk about the telecom industry as a whole.
  8. Mobile Marketing Watch: This blog covers the mobile marketing community, where business owners and marketers can find new mobile marketing ideas for campaigns. Vic Berggren writes this blog in his “spare time.” Berggren is a software developer and has worked for Interlink Communication Systems since 1998 and is currently the CIO at this company.
  9. Mobile Messaging 2.0: This site on the future of mobile messaging is sponsored by Airwide Solutions, a global-market provider for next-generation mobile messaging and wireless internet infrastructure, applications and solutions.
  10. Moz@Work: Moz Hussain works for Microsoft, where he focuses on enterprise unified communications. His blog covers the telecom industry with an eye to environmental issues.
  11. SIPthat: The VoIP and IP Communications blog by Erik Lagerway. Erik has more than a decade of experience in the telecommunications and software industry, and is currently the CEO of Lypp.
  12. Skype Blogs: Since Skype is available in 28 languages and is used in almost every country around the world, it’s no wonder that this collection of blogs is one of the most active VoIP sites on the Web. If you’re a Skype fan, you can spend all day reading content for developers, businesses, and individual users.
  13. Smith on VoIP: Garrett Smith is Director of Marketing and Business Development at VoIP Supply, a leading VoIP solutions provider. In this blog, Smith introduces and reviews new VoIP products and services. The connections here are not lost; B2 Consultant is the parent company to VoIP Supply, the business that hosts VoIP Insider (see #42).
  14. Telco 2.0: This Blog supports the Telco 2.0 Initiative, a new industry program focused on helping with the question: “How do we (telcos, handset manufacturers, Media companies, IT players, NEPs, etc) make money in an IP-based world?”
  15. The Final Mile: Tim Sanders posts some of his thoughts on the WiMAX Blog (see below), but his main venue is this blog, where he talks about wireless in all shapes and forms. Tim also provides a podcast on all things uber-wireless at WiMAX Global News.
  16. Verizon’s Policy Blog: Verizon is upfront in stating that the blog expresses their perspectives on policy issues that affect the telecommunications industry. With that said, they encourage feedback on that perspective. They prefer to focus on policy issues that “have implications for the greatest number of companies and consumers.”
  17. Vision Mobile: This company’s expertise encircles the ecosystem of network operators,handset manufacturers and mobile service providers in the wireless sector. Their blog may appeal mainly to tier-1 operators and OEMs, software vendors, system integrators, and international analyst houses. With that said, the topics here are vastly interesting to anyone with an interest in wireless systems.
  18. VoIP Insider: This blog is produced by VoIP Supply LLC, and its posts are geared more toward the reseller market. But any news is good news for avid VoIP fans - especially when it’s from the “inside.”
  19. VoIPs4u.com: Sponsored by Unitec Communications LLC, this site is more like a news feed than a blog. But, it is unlike any other blog listed here in that readers can catch up on VoIP news quickly through this site, as posts are frequent if you can rely on the occasional dated entry.
  20. WiMAX.com Blog: This blog is brought to you by WiMAX.com Broadband Solutions out of Austin, Texas. While the blog focuses mainly on the business perspective of WiMAX, the forum is geared toward answering questions about this up and coming technology.
  21. Wireless Mobility: Mae Kowalke is an Associate Editor at TMCnet, Technology Marketing Corporation’s online news site that covers a broad range of technology and marketing-related industries including WiFi, VoIP, CRM, call center, IP communications, biometrics, alternative power, and information technology. You’ll find topics here such as 802.11 and other wireless standards, BlackBerries, cell phones, fixed-mobile convergence, the IEEE, PDAs, and municipal WiFi.

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Mobile Blogs

The following blogs focus on mobile communications, including wireless, but focused mainly on mobile content and trends. If you’re looking for reviews about mobile gadgets, head to the last category in this article.

  1. Day in the Life of a Mobile Diva: Darla Mack, aka the “Mobile Diva,” began her stardom with a blog that showcased her mobile phone passion. The blog and Darla have morphed into a force to be reckoned with within the wireless industry.
  2. MobHappy: MobHappy is a collaborative effort between Russell Buckley and Carlo Longino, a mobile marketer and a writer about mobile devices respectively. Together, they bring humor and cutting-edge insights and analysis into the Mobile industry from outside the corporate perimeter.
  3. Mobile Monday: Mobile Monday is a global community comprised of mobile industry visionaries, developers and influentials who want to foster cooperation and cross-border business development through virtual and live networking events to share ideas, best practices and trends from global markets. With global networks, this group keeps an open communication platform going through events and through this blog. While the blog may not pertain to your specific mobile device, it’s an interesting read on what this group is doing.
  4. Mobile Open Source: Fabrizio Capobianco is CEO of Funambol, the mobile open source company, and this blog is a “thinking out loud” format for his thoughts on mobile community and social networking.
  5. Mobile Phone Blog: This blog provides an “insider’s perspective” on the mobile phone industry, opinions on cell phone content, reviews of mobile games, critiques about new firms in the market and the overall health of the global wireless industry. The blog is written by the two founders of Movaya, a service provider for digital content to mobile devices.
  6. Mobility Beat: This site is less a blog and more a community-powered social bookmarking and link sharing website about mobile technology. Influenced by the Digg social news network format, this group uses the Open Source Pligg to power their site.
  7. MobileMentalism: Mike Evans is a lecturer in Computer Science, specialising in social computing, and “devotee of the mobile gizmo.” While Evans keeps readers abreast of the current mobile market, he also encourages readers to envision what might be coming over the horizon so that his community can adapt to new technologies. A visionary’s dream blog.
  8. mocoNews.net: Biz-tech journalist and entrepreneur, Rafat Ali, created MocoNews as a blog that focuses specifically on the business of the mobile content market.
  9. Msearchgroove: The writers for this blog track industry developments and players that impact mobile search, personalization, recommendation, targeted mobile advertising, and social networking. One of the key authors is Chetan Sharma, from #63 below.
  10. mTrends: Rudy De Waele, a Belgian who lives and works in Barcelona, Spain, is a Mobile 2.0 evangelist. He started this blog in 2004 to cover the evolution of the wireless industry, and today his entries tackle subjects such as mobile events, user experiences, usability, innovations, startups and more.
  11. Open Gardens: This blog is about wireless mobility, innovation, digital convergence and mobile Web 2.0. Ajit Jaokar, author of the book, Mobile web 2.0, and a member of the web2.0 workgroup, founded this blog on May 26, 2005 based on his “vision and philosophy of OpenGardens i.e. the philosophical opposite of ‘walled gardens’ especially as applicable to the mobile data industry.”
  12. PhoneDog: Co- founders Tom Klein and Andre Refay established phonedog in 2001 as a means to provide the consumer with un-biased reviews and information needed to make smart decisions when choosing phone products and services. Klein’s door-to-door sales of phone, cable and Internet services for a small regional communications company in Charleston, South Carolina and Refay’s work as an IT project leader for a Web development company in Sarasota, Florida, provide the backgrounds needed to provide an unbiased perspective on products with an eye to satisfying consumer questions.
  13. Telepocalypse: Before Martin Geddes was a full-on teenager, he would get booted out of computer stores for reprogramming TI-99/4As. By 2001, he was enlisted into a project to re-invent Sprint as the first carrier to become an open application platform, so he was thinking in “i-mode++, but before i-mode was a known success.” He began this blog as a lark, but soon ended up leaving Sprint to become a consultant who is active in the Telco 2.0 initiative. His blog reflects his current interests with intelligent agitation, cynicism and wit.
  14. The Mobile Technology Weblog: The Mobile Technology Weblog follows important trends and events in consumer mobile technology markets worldwide and is part of the Creative Weblogging group.

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Wireless Blogs

The following blogs focus on the wireless industry, a place where visionaries meet with techies to discuss philosophy and the future of communications.

  1. 3G and 4G Wireless Blog: Zahid Ghadialy, a wireless evangelist with about a decade’s worth of experience in the 3G wireless domain, offers readers the latest news and information on 3G and 4G wireless topics.
  2. ABI Research Wireless Blog: ABI Research was founded in 1990 to assist manufacturers of wireless semiconductor components in understanding and entering new markets. Their wireless blog contains analyst perspectives on key industry topics including mobile devices, network infrastructure, mobile operators, mobile content, and short range wireless connectivity.
  3. Always On Real-Time Access: Chetan Sharma is a recognized industry expert in strategy and implementation of wireless data and pervasive computing solutions. The AORTA blog is both a personal and business blend of insights into the wireless industry, backed by his expertise as an author, a consultant, and the former founder and Director of Luminant Worldwide’s wireless practice.
  4. Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX News: Yes, the blog title is a mouthful, but it’s very descriptive. Steve Stroh, a technical writer who specializes in wireless technology, put this blog together and it holds his archival material for 2007. Now, in 2008, Stroh is branching out and readers can find his new work at Steve Stroh Articles.
  5. DailyWireless: Sam Churchill, the editor for this blog, is drawn healthy grass-roots competition in the wireless community. That’s why they focus on wireless developments such as WiMAX and community LANs. It’s also why all content on DailyWireless reflects the authors’ understanding of the issues and is not altered in any way by outside commercial interests (no paid posting or product mentions).
  6. Disruptive Analysis: Dean Bubley is the Founder of Disruptive Analysis, an independent technology industry analyst and consulting firm.that focuses primarily in wireless, mobile and telecom fields. His blog contains “insightful and sometimes acerbic observations on the world of mobile and wireless technology, especially FMC, wireless VoIP, convergence, smartphones, operator data services, mobile broadband, spectrum issues and IMS.”
  7. FierceWireless: More of a portal than a mere blog, this site contains a forum, news, special reports, jobs and more for the fierce wireless aficianado.
  8. More Blah 2.0: This blog is just one online venue for author Paul Golding, and it represents his personal insights. For the past twelve years, Golding has either been running a mobile software and consulting business or working as an independent mobile tech/strategy consultant. Recently, he also was chairman of the board of an internal innovations centre for mobile apps, called the Mashing Room, where Mobile Web 2.0 mash-ups were created. Golding also is author of the book, Next Generation Wireless Applications.
  9. The Wireless Future: This blog is sponsored by The New America, a nonprofit public policy institute that was established through the collaborative work of a diverse group of public intellectuals, civic leaders and business executives. Their blog on the wireless future contains both original blogs about wireless policy, although “it is primarily an aggregator for items by Wireless Future ‘friends and family’ from elsewhere on the web.”
  10. TechDirt: The wireless ‘channel’ for this technical blog provides news and analysis about the wireless industry. Although not always cutting edge, this blog delivers a broad range of stories that will keep the wireless reader well informed.
  11. Wi-Fi Networking News: Glenn Fleishman is a technology journalist, contributing regularly to The Economist, Popular Science, PC World, Macworld magazine, and other online and print publications. He has been a columnist for The Seattle Times since 2000, and appears weekly as a guest on KUOW-FM’s afternoon arts and culture program Sound Focus. Glenn owns and operates this daily news site and five related wireless data Web logs, all located from this link. The other blogs include Public Safety News, Voice over WLAN, Cell Data News, MIMO+N News and WiMax Net News. Busy man!
  12. Wireless Community: Dana Spiegel serves as the Executive Director and a member of the Board of Directors of NYCwireless, a New York City non-profit organization that advocates and enables the growth of free, public wireless networks. This blog is part of his experience, where he explores the “spectrum of community through public wireless networks.”
  13. Wireless Moves: Martin Sauter was photographed playing with a toy phone at age two, and according to him, not much has changed since that time, as he currently works as a Wireless Solution Consultant. Within this century, Sauter has published two books on communications systems for the mobile phone industry, and this blog - while focused initially on personal thoughts - has become a platform for discuss and share ideas and questions with a larger audience.

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Outside the U.S.

The following links will take you to English language blogs on telephony subjects located outside the U.S.

  1. BT Broadband Blog: BT Broadband focuses on small business communications in London, so their blog reflect this venue. Still, they broaden the scope by applying local events to the telecommunications industry. It’s an interesting read, especially if you want a comparison with an overseas perspective.
  2. Mark Evans: While not a total take on telephony or telecom, Evans brings a fresh voice from Canada on all things communication. He’ll even warn you that, in Montreal, people celebrate playoffs victories by the Montreal Canadiens by rioting and burning cars. This doesn’t happen in Toronto, where the Mesh Web Conference will take place this year.
  3. Telecom Trends: This is a Canadian blog written by Mark Goldberg from Mark H. Goldberg & Associates, a consulting services to telecommunications companies.
  4. WiHood and Telecom’s Tsunami Blog: Thomas F. Anglero founded WiHood AS in August 2007, and already has been honored with a funding award from Innovation Norway, a division of the Norwegian government providing capital to the most innovative companies in that country. WiHood is a program designed to ensure that children have safe access to the most innovative technologies. This leaning comes as no surprise, as Mr. Anglero is one of the very first pioneers of VoIP beginning in 1994 and he’s a father as well. The blog focuses on “insights into the disruptive changes of the telecommunications industry and the WiHood community!”
  5. Wireless Watch Japan: Founded in 2001, Wireless Watch Japan represents the “original and independent English news source on Japan’s mobile industry.” The blog provides in-depth coverage on the industry through news reports, analytical articles, and video and audio programs. Membership includes top-level employees from Fortune 500 companies. Wireless Watch Japan is a division of Mobikyo K.K., Tokyo.

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Niche

This category covers everything from a writer who covers VoIP along with pre-Islamic lunar cultic worship of southern Arabia and astroichthyology, an attorney who blogs about wireless towers, and a woman in the UK who collects antique British telephones and more oddities. On the other hand, you’ll find other one-of-a-kind blogs here as well, such as UCAN, the Utility Consumers’ Action Network and a blog that focuses totally on texting.

  1. Textually.org: This site, produced by Emily Turrettini from Geneva, Switzerland, is “all about texting, SMS and MMS. This site also is the entry point for three Weblogs devoted to cell phones and mobile content, all produced by Turrettini. The other blogs include Ringtonia.com (”the latest buzz on ringtones”), Picturephoning.com (”exploring the new world of picture and video phones”), and Watching TV Online (”and the threat to big media”).
  2. Sidecut Reports: A relatively new site from former GigaOM editor Paul Kapustka, Sidecut Reports delivers “cutting reports from the intersection of telecommunications, the Internet, and public policy.”
  3. TelecomLawBlog: Davis Wright Tremaine LLP (DWT) has been involved in telecom regulation and transactions for more than two decades. From the expansion from wireless into digital, this company plans to continue with support for telecom clients. The blog, therefore, provides a generic resource for anyone with questions about the telecom industry’s policy moves and how they affect users.
  4. First Coffee: While this blog, created by writer David Sims, does focus on VoIP, he also covers “customer relationship management, Turkish coffee, contact center management, speech recognition technologies, pre-Islamic lunar cultic worship of southern Arabia and astroichthyology.” Phew!
  5. Hear Us Now: HearUsNow.org follows the Consumers Union’s tradition of promoting a fair and just marketplace by empowering consumers to fight for better and more affordable telephone, cable and Internet services or equipment. Their blog, which is more of a report on their newsletter, is a great way to stay on top of telecom policy and how it affects consumers.
  6. Jonathan Kramer on Wireless Tower Siting: If any one blog really fits the “Niche” category, this is it. Kramer set this blog up over a decade ago because he knew “that government and private wireless planners are very visual people.” So, through this blog and its photographs, Kramer hopes to illustrate what can be done and what should be avoided when constructing wireless towers. Kramer is a consultant through his law firm, Kramer Telecom Law Firm, P.C., and he’s advised the U.S. government and private clients on wireless tower siting issues for many years.
  7. Old Telephones: Karen Shelton, located in the UK, has a penchant for antique phones circa 1910 to 1980. This is one blog for her obsession, and Retro Telephones, which focus on the Bakelite phones, is another.
  8. Pat Phelan: Pat Phelan is the founder and President of Cubic Telecom (also known as MaxRoam), a “well known disruptor in telephony circles and one of the leading voices of Voice 2.0.” Phelan has been involved with major telecom industries for years, but now sees himself as a ‘telecoms disruptor” and a “champion of the underdog” against ruling telecom companies.
  9. UCAN’s Consumer Watchdog Blog: Founded in 1983 by concerned San Diego citizens, the Utility Consumers’ Action Network, UCAN, was formed to protect consumers from utility and corporate abuse. Since that time, UCAN’s not-for-profit legal team has saved San Diego consumers billions of dollars in unfair utility rate hikes. Other communities can learn about their struggles and insights through their blog.
  10. Strategic News Service Blog: If you combine physics, biochemistry and technology, what would you get? Many think this combination would result in a person like Mark Anderson, a man who relishes the accuracy of his predictions about the computing and communications industries. If you combine consumerism with that mix, you have Anderson’s product, the Strategic News Service newsletter (SNS), which was the first subscription-based newsletter on the Internet and is read by technology industry leaders and investors worldwide.
  11. Telecom Books Blog: This blog collects telecom books for professionals, students, and people who are interested in telecommunications technology and business. But, the blog does more than review books - it provides news about the telecom industry as well.
  12. Telephony 2.0: This blog, moderated by Rich Karpinski and supported by Penton Media, covers a lot of ground. The site itself, Telephony Online, covers global, Ethernet, independent, IPTV, IMS, WiMAX, VoIP, FTTX, access, broadband, wireless and software news, articles and more.
  13. The PhoneBoy Blog: Dameon Welch-Abernathy could find a niche in VoIP, or he could fit neatly into the Mobile category. But, he finds a spot here because he covers VoIP, mobile, telecom and technology - and he makes it simple. Need to find Dameon? Look no further than Facebook, Twitter, Jaiku, Amazon (he wrote the book, Essential Checkpoint Firewall-1: An Installation, Configuration, and Troubleshooting Guide), the Voice over IP Weblog….and, well, you get the idea…
  14. Wireless USB Blog: Yes, Virginia, there is enough material about wireless USBs to update a blog on a regular basis. That’s what Karsten Stopp does with this site, which provides news, job offerings, videos and other information about WUSB products and services. If this isn’t enough for you, try Everything USB.

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Toys and Gadgets

If you can’t decide what to buy or if you don’t know about what’s best on the market today, then visit the blogs below. You’ll discover the companies that are capturing the telephony community’s imagination.

  1. ChipChick: Established in 2004, Chip Chick was a pioneer in the blogosphere, becoming amongst the first sites to focus on technology for women. This ‘channel’ within ChipChick helps women to learn about the latest mobile phone technology and content.
  2. Digital Nomads: If you combine travel with high tech, you get a Digital Nomad. You’ll discover resources for portable professionals and extreme telecommuting in this blog.
  3. Engadget Mobile: A list of blogs wouldn’t be a good list without mention of Engadget’s Mobile blog, which covers every newfangled gadget for the mobile phone market that’s on the market today - and some that haven’t made it to the shelves yet. Look here for the latest industry news and tech reviews.
  4. Know Your Mobile: The Know Your Mobile team is made up of four rather distinct characters - Mat Toor, Rhys Lewis, Lin Jia, Lowri Williams - who are located in London, yet who cover the world with their knowledge of mobile devices. The blog is sharp and the reviews are thorough. Know Your Mobile is a Project Badger production and part of the Dennis Publishing network of magazines and websites.
  5. Martin J. Smith: This blog isn’t quite a philosophy, and it isn’t quite a toy store. It’s a blend that offers insights into new gadgets and technological advancements across the gamut of mobile communications.
  6. Gadgetorama: This site officially launched on January 5, 2005, and its mandate focuses on mobile devices, such as Windows Mobile PDAs and smartphones, UMPCs and more. However, you might find a few posts on iPods and home entertainment toys as well.
  7. Gizmodo: If you have an unhealthy penchant for shiny new toys, then this blog is written just for you. You’ll find the latest news, reviews and recommendations for everything related to the word, “gadget,” including cell phones, PDAs, wireless gizmos and more.
  8. Mobile Telecommunication and Gadgets: Jurjen Veldhuizen is a manager of mobile information technology at TNO-ICT in Germany. His blog, written in English, covers some of the latest mobile gadgets from a European perspective.
  9. MobileBurn: This blog focuses on the U.S. and European markets as the writers bring in-depth, hands-on reviews about mobile devices. They also try to keep readers informed about the top news and product launches in the industry.

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Update: Even More Blogs!

Thank you to all of you who sent in suggestions to add to this list. Below, I am happy to include these blogs that I failed to mention in the original posting. If you have any additional suggestions not found here, please feel free to leave a comment at the end of this post.

  1. All About Nortel: All the news about Nortel Networks. Written by Mark Evans (see also #74).
  2. All About Symbian: The title pretty much says it all. This site claims to be “world’s biggest community site and portal for smartphones running the Symbian OS.”
  3. Dean Bubley’s Disruptive Wireless: From Mr. Bubley himself: “Insightful and sometimes acerbic observations on the world of mobile and wireless technology, especially FMC, wireless VoIP, convergence, smartphones, operator data services, mobile broadband, spectrum issues and IMS.”
  4. GSM Arena: If you’re looking for specs and a review of a GSM phone (new or old), you’ll find it here.
  5. Kevin Restivo’s Tech Blog: Restivo is a software research analyst for IDC Canada. This blog is his personal take on wireless and consumer markets.
  6. The Mobile Gadgeteer: This blog by Matthew Miller on ZDNet offers the take of one who describes himself as an “avid mobile device enthusiast.”
  7. Mobiledia: “Resource site dedicated to providing cell phone reviews, news, and comprehensive information on all things mobile.”
  8. Mobile Messaging 2.0: Sponsored by Airwide Solutions, this blog features the commentary of several different authors within the mobile tech industry.
  9. Phone Scoop: Nothing here but a whole lot of cell phone reviews!
  10. Slash Phone: Self-described as “a hip and influential resource for the latest in worldwide mobile phone news, reviews and industry innovations.”
  11. The Smartphones Show: Several-times-monthly videocast on the latest smartphone news “for the rest of us.” Most of the videos are actually shot with a Nokia N93.
  12. SMS Text News: “Daily news and opinion for 250,000 industry executives and mobile fanatics.” Founded by mobile fanatic Ewan MacLeod.
  13. Starr Trek: No beaming up here, Scotty. While this blog does go where no blog has gone before, its focus is on mobile technologies, Web 2.0 and Green Energy ecosystems. Brought to you by Oliver Starr.
  14. Telecosm: Ike Elliott’s take on telecom, technology, and the real world.
  15. The Thomas Howe Company: Thomas Howe provides “expertise in the integration of real time communications and the business process.
  16. Unwired View: Wireless news, views, and reviews.
  17. Voice of VOIPSA: The group weblog of the Voice over IP Security Alliance. Featuring Mark Collier (#23) and Dan York (#4) among many others.
  18. VoIP & Gadgets Blog: Tom Keating has been in the telecom publishing industry since 1994, when he first joined TMC. He’s been a computer geek for far longer than that though, as he proudly proclaims on his about page that his interest in computers began in 1982 when he got a Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer (CoCo). His experience provides us with a wealth of information on his blog.
  19. VoIP News: Long-running news site on business VoIP information.
  20. Voxeo Blogs: Weblogs from the Voxeo Corporation.