VoIP popularity index : Not quite upto the mark

We have all witnessed the phenomenal rise of VoIP from being a relatively lesser known technology to being the new voice of telecommunication (quite literally). However, it is a general observation that VoIP still hasn’t been able to live up to the expectations of industry experts, and has not been able to outgrow normal telephony, which still reigns as the preferred medium of communication, inspite of mobile phones and computers being used extensively all throughout the world. Below are a few points that have been responsible for this lag in the reach of one of the most influential technologies of the 20th (and the 21st) century, as reported by tmcnet.

Bad marketing
Business houses have always been top on the priority list of a majority of VoIP providers. While players like Skype do acknowledge the benefit of selling their services to individual households, many others are still marketing theirs effectively to organizations only, in order to obtain fat contracts and even fatter bank balances. Result : the quintessential household user is often unaware of the technology and has to stick to normal telephony.

Industry situation
There are many players in the industry but very few are considered to be upto the mark. SunRocket shut down early last year, leaving its customers out in the cold; Skype, the most prominent player, is being sold to Google; Vonage, another big player, is having trouble with customer relations. With so many problems regularly cropping up, it comes as no surprise that VoIP is seem as an unreliable service, thanks to its wavering industry condition.

Mobile broadband
The concept of mobile broadband and smartphones is relatively new, and one of the major attractions of VoIP is the fact that it makes calling from a computer to a cell-phone considerably cheap.

Confusing plans
Analyzing a calling plan by a VoIP provider often requires an IQ of 150. there are so many fine prints related to how many lines you are using, which location are you calling from, which location are you calling to, the features you are using, and so on. If VoIP companies could figure out a way to simplify their calling plans (which, I don’t think, is a big thing), they might be able to attract more individual consumers.

VoIP security
I have written a blog post specifically on the above. This most definitely is a growing area of concern, although more so for organizations, but nevertheless proves to be a deterrent in attracting customers.

Call quality
There is an omnipresent thought reigning in the telecom market that VoIP users have to sacrifice somewhat on the voice quality, which nullifies its utility as a low-cost communication medium. While this was true until early last year, VoIP providers have now got a grip on the technology, and the voice quality is now at par with your normal telephone or mobile.

Lack of attention and information
There is a dearth of awareness regarding VoIP, and part of the blame goes to the media, since they have not given it prior attention in their crusade for the welfare of the society, as they would like to call it.

All the above issues, if addressed properly, would most definitely remove quite a few bottlenecks for the VoIP industry, and would allow it to realize its true potential.