Smathering of VoIP
Currently on the road, so I’m not keeping up with what’s going on as closely as usual. So here’s a smathering of VoIP-related things that happened over the past couple of days.
I think I agree with Andy that Aswath deserves the title Ghostbuster. Here’s his latest blog entry on Skype Under the Microscope. The most important thing Aswath says is that what Skype does can be replicated with open protocols. Hear, hear.
Meanwhile, Om breaks down where the Million people using VoIP are subscribed. The top 3 providers have about 70% of the market share and that leaves over 400 providers fighting over about 30% of the market. Considering what it costs to “enter” the VoIP market and maintain a service once its operational, I think it’s quite likely there will continue to be a lot of providers, and many of them will at least break even if they can keep their costs low.
The VoIP Weblog points to a news story on cnet about how Libretel is offering 1-800 numbers for $6 a month. That’s not true, they are offering regular DIDs, mostly on the east coast at that. $6 USD for a true 800 numbers would be an absolute steal.
Then there’s this Voxilla story that says VoicePulse and Vonage are pushing video over IP. It will be interesting to see how useful this turns out to be and if the VoIP providers can stop competing long enough to sign interconnect agreements.
