VoIP: OUT for 2009
I guess it’s my turn to get on the bandwagon about whether or not VoIP is dead. It is, and we should get over it already.
I agree with Jeff Pulver, Andy Abramson, and Jon Arnold that there is innovation going on in VoIP. No question about it. However, those innovations are services. Companies like Fonolo, Jajah, Mobivox, iotum (makers of Calliflower), and others are using technology that has existed for years in new and exciting ways. They don’t make voice, say, travel faster or take up less space on the wire. They might change how voice can be used or provide a previously existing service in a new an unique way, but it’s not a fundamental shift in how voice is transmitted.
Ok, there might be some innovations going on with the raw voice transmission as well, but these changes are likely to be incremental at best. The fundamentals have existed for over a decade and I don’t see any major changes on the horizon. It’s plubming, as Ken Camp has said many times.
Normal people don’t care abut VoIP. They just care if it works. Let’s take an example of using Comcast phone service instead of CenturyTel for landline phone service. The main issue for my wife is not that it’s VoIP, but that it doesn’t work exactly the same way as a regular landline. The fact that it is VoIP is almost irrelevant. It boils down to two problems: availability (Comcast goes down more), and emergency services (911 doesn’t exactly work the same way).
It’s not VoIP, it’s the services it provides.
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Tags: andy abramson, Calliflower, centurytel, comcast, jajah, jeff pulver, mobivox, voip Fnord
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Comment by Juergen
Must be a US thing… in Germany, thanks to the de-facto monopoly of Deutsche Telekom on normal landline phone service, a lot of ISPs offer extremely cheap VoIP services and the hardware to use those services extremely easy, too. Lately people have been enabled to get broadband even without ordering normal phone service, and rely solely on that for phone services via VoIP.
Sure, there’s no big “Everybody wants to buy VoIP” anymore… but the technology still is there getting more and more users. Then again, people in the US didn’t really buy ISDN either – Deutsche Telekom made it a success in Germany
Comment by spg
a fundamental confusion around VOIP in the USA has to do with the early entry of big and expensive carriers like vonage and packet8 and the cable companies like comcast. these companies of little extra value of anyone cares about and are only slightly less expensive than the much more reliable POTS line. in comparison in europe lots of people go for the smaller and much less expensive options most of which allow the use of any sip device.
i would never recommend someone drop their POTS for comcast or vonage; it is not near as reliable. however for someone looking to really save a ton of money buying a skype hardware phone and getting an unlimited package and skypein number may make sense since the price difference is so great.
all these other services like the ones you mention(JAJAH, MOBIVOX, ETC.) are really just about toll bypass even if they market themselves for the value add features, if the major operators move to unlimited international calling plans they will be out of business really fast. even with services like grandcentral if you read the forums it definatly gives the impression everyone either just wants a free DID number or wants to take advantage of free click to call long distance. the rest is a nuisance that people bear with for the sake of free service.
Comment by PhoneBoy
@juergen There are use cases (and locations) where VoIP STILL makes a lot of sense. It’s not to say that VoIP as a technology (or a cost savings tool) is dead, it’s just that it’s like TCP/IP–it’s plumbing.
@spg The cost difference between CentruyTel and Comcast isn’t that substantial, either. Granted I could get a little more with Comcast (like Canada calling and voicemail on the web), but I know exactly what I am getting with the LEC and the service has been rock solid.
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