Tag Archive for 'voip'

20% of VoIP to be via softphone?

Published by Ben Kepes on July 4, 2008 in Business, IT and Society. 1 Comment

GigaOm posted about his VoIP experience and the fact that Jajah has started offering call termination, billing and other such services other.

A sentence at the end of his post caught my eye;

A Frost & Sullivan report says that as a percentage of total IP-telephone market soft phones share will increase from 5 percent to 20 percent by 2014

I believe that by 2014, VoIP will have subverted a huge proportion of voice traffic. If you accept that estimation, I wonder how you imagine one in five of all users utilising a softphone - the vast majority (ie over the remaining 80% that research would indicate) still appreciate the tactility of a hardphone - I just can’t see anywhere near 20% of traffic being moved to softphones.

Thoughts anyone?

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Skype 4.0 beta

Published by Ben Kepes on June 18, 2008 in Business, Collaboration, Design, Efficiency, IT, SaaS and Strategy. 3 Comments

Skype is rolling out a beta version of its newest software and it marks a distinct change in tack for the company. Skype’s formative days were centred around voice communications, video functionality had been something of a bolt on to the UI. The new version is all about communication, not favouring voice over video.

The new Skype is all about building up a user’s networks, support is included for importing contacts from a number of installed and web email apps.

The UI might shock a few hardened users, used to seeing the rather minimalist current look, but in order to maximise video functionality, Skype had to command more monitor real estate.

With most Telco’s already offering, or soon to introduce, VoIP offerings, Skype needs to up the anti in terms of functionality. This beta release takes yet another broadside at another of the incumbents high value revenue streams - namely video conferencing. The Telco’s must hate Skype - first P2P VoIP ate POTS lunch and now they’re looking at big ticket stuff - disruption hurts!

The beta release will be available here tomorrow.

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This is madness (on VoIP)…

Published by Ben Kepes on May 29, 2008 in IT and New Zealand. 5 Comments

So I decided that, being a bit of an early adopter, a move to naked DSL with VoIP was in order.

I dutifully purchased my PAP2T (to convert VoIP to a standard phone) and filled in my application form for WorldxChange’s fusion service (Naked DSL, VoIP combo for $70/month).

Horrors - it seems that my current provider (Telstra) refuses to allow porting of numbers to WorldxChange.

Two quick points from this;

  1. Everyone is quick to lambast Telecom but WorlxChange advises me that Telecom ports numbers to them with no problems
  2. Whatever happened to easy, ubiquitous and customer focused naked DSL in this country

The folks at WorldxChange were helpful - seems my best option is to port back to Telecom for a week then port over to WorldxChange from there - it’s a solution which would work but it’s exceptionally clunky and, let’s face it, a barrier to disruption.

Brickbats to Telstra and a bouquest to Telecom on this one I reckon!

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Can Telco symbiosis beat Skype?

Published by The Unreasonablemen on May 7, 2008 in IT and Strategy. 4 Comments

(A cross posting from unreasonablemen.net)

A couple of posts today (Om Malik and a follow up on Skype Journal) discuss a rumoured Skype killing application that is allegedly being planned for. It seems that some of the Telco heavyweights want to build a VoIP based P2P calling service in order to stunt the success of Skype. Those providers in the consortium won’t charge interconnection (on net) calls, but if you call another carrier’s number (and I’d hazard a guess here) or even a POTS number within the providers number pool, you’ll get charged (like Skype out).

It’s a good strategy that has been successful before. The basics are that you enter an adjacent market, tank the revenue pool in that market to such an extent that the incumbent (Skype in this instance) has no resources left to enter your market because it’s fighting for its life in its home market.

Great plan except for a couple of things fella’s.
Firstly Skype’s disrupting you!, secondly you can’t tank what is already free, and thirdly Skype is already in your market (the oops too late moment!).
Apart from the problems with the strategy, I see a bunch of implementation issues with this the approach

  1. Can these Telco’s work together
  2. Can they get a value proposition that isn’t “old Telco” going at the same time as “Telco 2.0” - BT is a strong advocate of the “Protect and Grow legacy revenues”. How will this fly?
  3. Can they suffer the cultural change of not charging for calling?
  4. Can they physically build it
  5. Who will buy it? - only ray of hope is that they have financial security that Vonage etal don’t. They have a long way to go here. Skype’s adding 360 000 subscribers a day. That’s growth no Telco except China or India has dealt with ever.
  6. Can they sell it? Big step change for a sales teams

Thoughts on this anyone? Smacks of desperation to me.

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