After a huge outcry by many on Twitter, Facebook and even a Change.org petition with currently almost 1,200 signatures gathered in less than a week, Cisco seems to have recanted their position, and will be allowing current CCIE Voice certified individuals, as well as those that certify before the February 14, 2014 switchover date, to migrate to the new CCIE Collaboration, simply by taking and passing the new CCIE Collaboration Written exam, which will debut on November 21, 2013.

Here is the official statement from Cisco.

To all of our CCIE Voice professionals. Here is a statement from Fred Weiller, Director of Marketing at Learning@Cisco:

"We are listening to the feedback from our valued CCIE community, and will be adjusting the CCIE Collaboration requirements. As a quick preview of the evolution of the CCIE Collaboration certification, a current holder of the CCIE Voice designation will now be able to migrate to a CCIE Collaboration credential by taking the CCIE Collaboration written exam only. We appreciate all of the great feedback and patience of the community while we update our webpages to reflect this change. We will be communicating further details about this modification as soon as possible."