This month, the telecommunications world has made it through plenty of new product launches, lawsuits, mergers, and new leaders. Here are some of the ones we thought you should know about in your June OSS Newswatch column. For the latest in news from TMW-Nice, check out our Nice feature story.

Vonage is in the news again this month for several reasons. First of all, their request for a patent retrial in a suit brought against Vonage by Verizon has been denied by the courts. Not surprisingly, Vonage’s business is falling behind because of all the tribulations brought on by the suit. All the while, cable companies like Comcast are building their subscriber bases in the VoIP market, causing Vonage to lose some major ground. However, Vonage has recently unveiled a new service that turns its customer’s voice mails into text messages that can be read on mobile devices and computer screens, which could be popular with customers who are often in situations that don’t allow them to access their voicemail.

Verizon Wireless is engaged in yet another lawsuit, this time against “Autodialer” telemarketers. Verizon filed the suit against unnamed telemarketers in New Jersey who were using an “autodialer” to make calls from specific numbers. Verizon claims that over 1 million of these illegal calls were made to its customers in the month of March.

Sprint is also involved in a law suit in a federal court in Iowa in a claim against fourteen dial-in service providers and in-state phone companies who are allegedly making deals illegally that would increase call volumes along with payments they are collecting from other carriers.

A study by a provider of client development has shown that customers who purchase bundled services are 40% less likely to seek out a new service provider. On the same token, the European Commission says that 20% of households in Europe purchase bundled packages, and 24% of households in the U.K. do the same.

Comcast has recently announced an internet connection that can deliver data 25 times faster, at 150 –mbps, than all of the currently existing cable modems. The new technology is known as “channel bonding,” and it won’t be widely available for several years. However, analysts predict that services like it will completely transform the Internet in the future. Comcast is now also offering a free add-on service to their high-speed internet and digital phone subscribers. The service would allow subscribers to access email and voice messages over the web. The service would also include an interactive address book and instant messaging.