RBOCs continue to have lower customer base as VoIP scales newer heights

The spread of VoIP across the United States is certainly on a high these days. Accroding to data released by TeleGeography's US VoIP Research Service, the three US Regional Bell operating Companies (RBOC's), namely AT&T, Verizon and Qwest have lost 17.3 million residential subscribers between Q1 2005 and Q1 2008, while cable companies and VoIP service providers have increased their user base by 14.5 million.


While VoIP has certainly been one of the major adversaries of landline companies, it is cable operators who have actually stolen the show this time around (For more info, check out my blog on Comcast) with their Triple Play programmes that include voice video and internet services, hence the reason that cable companies account for 80% of US IP telephony numbers. RBOCs on the other hand are continuously suffering losses. The example of Qwest is a most appropriate one. Reportedly, the company has lost 195,000 customers and about $83 million in the first quarter of 2008. While Verizon and AT&T have begun to work on their providing their own range of offerings based on the Triple Play model, Qwest apparently is not doing anything to prevent the situation from arising again.



Even when we shift our focus from VoIP, cellphones too have had a significant impact on the so-called 'extinction', if you will, of landlines in the US. According to the Centers for Disease Control,(Yes, it's true. Even I was shocked to see such stats revelad by something as wierd as the CDC!) at least 16 percent of US households have one or more cellphones, but no landlines.


Assessing the situation at a closer level, it is very clear to see why such a shift in telephony subscription is taking place. While landline telephones do, and would always continue to, have an edge over VoIP telephony due to a few technical knick-knacks, VoIP does prove to be indispensible in case of long distance calls. Applications such as Skype and Globe7 have indeed been very succesful in the last 3-4 years. Further, the triple play program being offered by cable companies is obviously very lucrative, since it combines internet access along with voice and video services. While the existence of landlines can nither be negated nor avoided, RBOCs have to come up with something fast if they are to remain a dominant force in the telecom sector.

Vonage’s resurgence with the return of JC

Vonage has recently undergone a flurry of changes in its marketing and operational strategy, according to the IP telephony company’s returning CEO, Jeffrey Citron (who is also, quite incidentally, the founder of the company). While stepping back into the shoes of the chief executive officer (he had left in February, 2006), Citron has admitted to observing that Vonage had somehow lost its way amid fighting lawsuits and the everlasting ambition to expand its business.
Citron is no stranger to the world of independent ventures. In 1992, he discovered the revolutionary Island ICN system, which allowed shareholders to trade shares by entering buy and sell orders into a single database, which he sold in 2002 for $503 million. Besides that, he founded an online brokerage firm, Datek Online, which was sold for $1.3 Billion, also in 2002. Although he got into an illegal trading dispute with the SEC which was settled after paying a fine of $22.5 million, I’m sure there are a lot of similar, and bigger things, to talk about in the world of entrepreneurship. After investing more than $50 million of his own money into Vonage, and bearing witness to its dwindling stock (below 89 percent from its IPO of $17 when in decided to allow public shareholding in 2006), it is quite obvious that he is concerned for his brainchild.
To begin with, the immediate issue at hand is most definitely Vonage’s failure to handle its customer base. While its subscriber base nearly doubled to 2.2 million in 2006 from 1.3 million in 2005, Vonage did not take any steps to enhance its customer service systems. This ultimately resulted in frustrated clients and cancellations, which were extremely expensive, costing upto $40 to some clients. Next on the list is Vonage’s ad-campaign, which was having both an inflated budget and ineffectiveness. Despite the budget jumping from $56 million in 2004 to $365 million in 2006, the focus was still on expanding its customer base, which again, left little room for upgrades in the interface to make Vonage’s service better. While starting off on the rehabilitation task, Mr. Citron has been actively involved in developing new software to make the customer service more reliable. There is also a better grip on the marketing budget for 2007, estimated to be somewhere close to $284 million. Apart from the lawsuits that were worth $239 million, Vonage is now gearing up for the next step. It’s rolling out new products, including an international long-distance calling plan.
While on one hand big plans are being made, investors are clearly not too keen, probably scared of the fact that now cable providers are also pulling their socks to actively enter the VoIP domain. In Canada and the USA, cable operators have made a significant impact with an array of services which apparently, Vonage can’t match. While the Mr. Citron is quite confident that both cable providers as well as Vonage can survive simultaneously in the market, the stats tell a different story. According to Convergence Consulting, Canada had about 150,000 VoIP residential phone customers till the end of 2007, half of which belonged to Vonage. However, Canadian cable operators clearly outnumbering Vonage with an estimated figure of 2.4 million residential users, with the latter’s figures not even close.
So that’s the whole story in a nutshell. On one side you have an entirely pumped-up CEO who has a couple of big success stories to be the reason for his confidence, and on the other side there is a market that has clearly no faith on the once-popular VoIP service provider. It is often seen that owners are always optimistic about their product, it is always left for time to take its own due course. Hopefully, Vonage would come up to the same level as it was before it started going down in 2006.


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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.

Want a free VoIP platform? * Conditions apply

Many of you might have guessed what I’m talking about by reading just the title of this post, as the phenomenon called Asterisk is not new to the world of IP telephony. For those who haven’t, pay heed. Listed on both the good and the bad sides of people, it has proven to be a blessing for upcoming ventures who don’t have enough funding, and a shape of things to come for the likes of established businesses such as those of Cisco, Nortel or Avaya.

Asterisk was developed by Mark Spencer, a 29 year old Computer Engineering graduate from Auburn university while still in college. He is presently the CTO and Chairman of the Board for Digium, the parent organisation of this open source application for VoIP, which currently has over 2 million users, according to their official website. The company had mainly been operating as a Linux consultant when it was started, but the IT crash in 2001 led to Spencer taking Asterisk seriously, since the organisation’s future was at stake now. What transpired since then is history. Asterisk is today the fountainhead of many popular SMEs operating in the VoIP arena. With Asterisk, a company can take out 80% of its telephone related costs and negate the requirement of a traditional phone switch, as the free software establishes phone calls over the Internet and handles voicemail, caller ID, teleconferencing and many other telecom features. Digium now has 50 employees and an annual turnover of $10 million by selling hardware installed with tested versions of applications based on Asterisk. With enterprise VoIP deployment reaching an all-time high, the future for this organisation is clearly very bright.
A few fast facts are listed below :

• Electric utility Southern Co. is using Asterisk in a pilot program to translate voicemail into text messages for 30 managers’ BlackBerrys.

• Manchester, Connecticut is about to begin using Asterisk to run an application tied to the 911 service that will cost less than $1 million, half the price it would have paid had it used traditional phone equipment, and at 10% of the operating costs.

• Intel now makes Asterisk-compatible cards for computers and has tested large deployments

• IBM, which itself resells internal telephony gear for Cisco, admits to have a “positive but very informal” relationship with Digium.

Spencer was actually ‘forced’ to develop Asterisk because he could not afford standard PBX systems that were very expensive. This is a classic example of necessity is the mother of invention combining with a case of intended serendipity, which led Asterisk to become one of the most popular platform on which many budding organisations have based their systems (an apt example would be SwitchVox, which used Asterisk’s system and was later acquired last year under a unification plan by Digium). While I might be going slightly off-track, it is truly a commendable effort by Mark Spencer towards expanding the application and usability of VoIP. While many websites have termed it as a threat, I would most certainly support the development of Asterisk as a saviour for small and medium business houses.

VoIP just might answer the 911 call

The most prolific argument since the inception of VoIP has been its continuous conflicts with the 911 service. General concerns were mainly two; many times, dialling 911 from a computer would not actually connect you to a 911 operator, and even if you do, he won't be able to figure out where you are calling from, hence negating the overall purpose of a 911 call. In the Lee county, however, a different story is brewing up. The Federal Communications Commission has ordered companies that provide VoIP to fix the problem to make sure the calls go to the emergency operators only, and also that the calling numbers are displayed, along with the location (according to an article on news-press.com)

Ideally, a VoIP-transported 911 call should go directly to the closest public safety access point (PSAP) and display both the phone number as well as the location. Initial testing for the same has begun, and the Lee County Public Safety has urged all the local residents to try the new platform by calling the County 911 Program Manager and setting an appointment for a proxy call to 911 for checking the newly implemented system, and to schedule calls in a manner that the number is never busy. Lee County Public Safety is already facing problems, with a figure of approximately 2-20% of the customers reporting that the system does not work with them. Quiet shockingly, they are unaware of the fact that they would not be able to contact 911 via VoIP in case of any emergency.

Vonage and Comcast, two of the leading VoIP carriers of our times, do not give access to their customers to call 911, with Vonage customers needing a confirmation form the company. According to the Public Safety agency estimates, there should have been thousands of calls since this initiative began. Quite surprisingly though, there have been very few calls per day, hence calling for a stricter course of action.

In times like the present ones, when many have replaced their traditional telephony systems with services from VoIP providers like Vonage and others, the initiative in Lee by the authorities is certainly a move in the right direction. While tests are still going on, it is perhaps a point to stress upon that companies in the domain of IP telephony must also actively participate in such kind of programs, and try to incorporate 911 support in their services, since safety is something we all desire. Companies might not do it for the social cause, but could surely do the same as an added incentive that could lead to greater sales.

Security issues over enterprise VoIP

VoIP has certainly taken its toll on the telecom sector. Continuing to replace standard telephony procedures in a majority of the organizations, particularly in developed countries like the USA, VoIP enterprise sales in have registered an increase of 31% in 2007, while the traditional telephony gear witnessed a fall of 20% in sales. IP PBX sales and converged PBX sales crossed $4.26 billion, exceeding traditional PBX revenue of $4.12 billion. Everything seems to be falling into place at just the right time for VoIP, while telecom providers are struggling hard to hold on to their consumer base, with even the Pentagon now conforming its adoption of VoIP as the standard communication procedure for the Social Security Administration.

Meanwhile, a slight matter of concern has cropped up in this story. Apparently, security is one front where VoIP does not fare well at all, or rather, is not given prior attention to. According to an In-Stat survey of US businesses, not more than 50% penetration is achieved by any security mechanism for VoIP, across all sizes of business, according to an analyst at In-Stat. Presently, there are many proactive measures such as periodic security audits and pre-deployment audits. However, it’s a rather strange observation that neither business houses nor the VoIP providers are too keen on the security issue, and this includes even large organizations. In an age where patents and lawsuits go hand in hand, and copyright infringements are dealt with most severity, it amazes me to see that no such initiative to make VoIP more secure is being taken. There are hardly any doubts over the extent to which competitors go to steal confidential information from each other. Though there might be a protocol present in a majority of the organizations stating not to discuss confidential matters on phone, my point is, why to take the chance? Particularly when you have options at hand.

Other findings by the In-Stat survey are as follows :

Over 80% of survey respondents have deployed some type of VoIP solution in their companies.
Between 2007 and 2010, 168 million IP PBX lines will be shipped into the business premises.
Usage of collaboration and conferencing products that leverage VoIP is increasing.

Though more details are not revealed publicly, this report has set alarm bells ringing across the industry, with FierceVoip being the first one to report it. Clearly, there is an urgent need to introduce security measures for this immensely popular application. VoIP has primarily made its reputation due to its flexibility and cost-effectiveness, and the past decade has seen a sudden upsurge in the popularity from being prevalent only in select areas of developed countries, to being the preferred means of communication in the corporate world. While all this be kept aside, security is one aspect that could seriously do with some improvement, more so when one considers its immense usage these days. It’s true that this technology has tremendous potential to completely replace standard telephony procedures, but until and unless methods are devised to make it more secure, the situation today could pose some serious questions.

Comcast ‘casts’ triple play on VoIP providers

Riding high on the emergence of cable companies as VoIP providers, Comcast Corp. has recently announced the launch of its popular triple-play packages for small and medium enterprises, which would allow even small setups to benefit from the technology, in New England. Titled ‘Business Class Voice’, this service allows enterprises to access cable television, high-speed Internet and voice services at prices atarting as low as $99. Comcast, the largest cable television company and the second largest internet service provider of the USA, has seemingly decided to go full throttle in the $55 Billion US IP telephony market now, and would be expanding its territories in due course of time, according to company sources. While on one hand the VoIP industry is expanding like anything, there are clearly two areas which cable providers venturing into this domain are aiming at. First, the courtroom has become somewhat a second home to a majority of the VoIP providers, with practically every big player having copyright infringement cases to his credit. This, in turn, has resulted in a chasm in the boundaries of VoIP, which were being securely guarded by the watchdogs of these players, hence allowing cable operators to take advantage. The second area of concern, which is more specifically pertaining to enterprise VoIP, is the cost factor. VoIP providers often offer packages that are unaffordable by the SME’s.

Comcast seems to have relied heavily on the latter, with its packages starting as low as $99. The packages include calling features like auto attendant, call forwarding, call tracing, three-way calling and more, apart from offering a download speed of 16 MB/sec and software packages such as internet applications from Microsoft (including corporate class e-mail, Sharepoint and MacAfee protection). Comcast has also announced it would continue to roll out new services in the coming months. According to the company’s press release, Comcast wanted to give SME’s an equal opportunity to expand their business.

While this initiative by Comcast is definitely worth appreciating, it is probably worth noticing that the pace at which cable providers are entering the VoIP market might be too fast to match up to by traditional VoIP players. The wisest thing to do, if the big names are to continue their reign in the market, would be to form an alliance to combat this uprising, if you will, much like cable companies had done when they had sued Vonage for resorting to unfair means of retention marketing. The focus ought to be on providing better customer service at cheaper prices, and not on suing each other in order to extort revenues, since short term losses must often be overlooked for long term gains. They say that desperate times call for desperate measures. While the times may not be desperate as yet, another popular quote says Prevention is better than cure.

Go mobile with multiple SIPs: Gtalk2VoIP launches Talkonaut 4.0

Recently I had the opportunity to go through Tom Keating’s blog on tmcnet.com. It was a very good read and I was exposed to a lot of info after reading it…

OK, let’s cut out on all the obvious praises. I read the blog because Tom Keating is supposed to be a very learned man (which he is, without any doubt) and because the news he was talking about was really something interesting.

Talkonaut, a mobile application by Gtalk2VoIP, had recently been upgraded to serve the functions of providing VoIP telephony on the Symbian 60 OS mobile phones, which would necessarily imply Nokia handsets. While most of the smartphones by Nokia did have a separate SIP stack for VoIP telephony, this feature works only on Wifi. However, Talkonaut has its own VoIP SIP stack via which mobile users could make calls over most of the general data connections present in a mobile phone such as GPRS, EDGE, 3G and Wifi. Further, as is the main purpose of Gtalk2VoIP, the user can also make calls to Google Talk users, SIP phones, MSN, Yahoo, AIM and ICQ voice capable IM clients. This fourth edition of the same can also allow users to receive free calls from SIP phones (or for that matter, any other VoIP network).

However, a striking feature that is not provided by any other mobile telephony service provider is the provision to have multiple SIP accounts onto the same mobile handset. This might prove to be a smart strategy to attract frequent users of Talkonaut’s competitors. While Talkonaut might not offer the lowest rates everywhere, they may be providing cheaper calling rates in a few regions. The users could hence, use one of the other mobile VoIP providers, like Vonage, for making calls to one particular region, and use Talkonaut to make calls to another. This would give users ample options to communicate and allow Gtalk2VoIP to have a hold on the customer base of its competitors. Pretty smart thinking, if you ask me. This could also lead to a comparison in the minds of users where they might compare the voice quality and connectivity features of various VoIP providers and quite a few might even switch over to Talkonaut.

Regardless of how hyped is this latest version of Talkonaut is, what would really set the wheels in motion is the voice quality and call connectivity, two basic features for the success of any VoIP application. Overall, it would all boil down to how well the interface of this latest offering from Gtalk2VoIP is built. And if the previous version of Talkonaut is anything to go by, things are certainly looking good.

VoIP enabled on the Sony PS3

The saga of one-upmanship between two titans of gaming consoles continues. But this time, it’s with a twist. It’s not better graphics or improved game play that is the matter of concern.

Sony has recently introduced inter-user VoIP communication in its games with the result of firmware update 2.4. While this feature had already been available on the Xbox and the Xbox 360 since its launch, via the Xbox live feature, the question at stake is not that why didn’t Sony retaliate it at that point of time? If one remembers correctly, in May 2007, Jajah, an Austria based VoIP provider, had announced that it has developed a web interface which would support the PS3 in making and receiving calls. After that announcement, that news was lost in anonymity, probably because the PS3’s interface might have suffered or the game performance would have been lackluster. There is no mention of the same anywhere on Wikipedia also, which is very strange, considering almost ‘tying’ up with a brand like Sony could have done wonders to the market value of Jajah, If it would have worked. Apparently, it didn’t.

As far as the recent upgrade is concerned, it is still for the users to see whether it is effective or not. But if it is, it would definitely be a huge hit among PS3 fans. There would also be an improved in-game chat feature, which could be integrated in the Xross Media Bar. And for your information, the Xross bar has been awarded an Emmy award for its interface. So, things seem to be finally falling into place for Sony. However, this could be a little too late as the Xbox 360 has already taken a huge lead over the PS3 due to its early launch. While Sony did claim that the delay in its release was due to problems in the digital rights management (DRM) of its revolutionary Blu-ray interface, the fact still remains that the Xbox took the early initiative and has benefited immensely.

Earlier in March also, the PS3 had sort of followed the Xbox to create a community of its own. What amazes me is the constant news that Sony is repeatedly doing what the Xbox has done. While learning from your competitors is a good thing, you must also use your own brains for once. The PS3 has had a rather disappointing 2007, with Playstation boss Jack Tretton admitting that there were “missteps” (according to an article on pcworld.com). While this latest ‘innovation’, if it can be called that, is the latest in the list of the Sony PS3, the future for this console looks very uncertain, due to two factors; for one, the Xbox and Wii are going as strong as ever, and the rising expectations are continuing to lead to the downfall of this gaming console, which is the successor of the original and the PS2, both of which were huge hits even ten ears after their launch.

Internet penetration: A milestone achieved or a drop in the ocean?

They say that the world is god’s playground. If that is so, then the internet can definitely be referred to as the playground of the human mind. Conceptualized in 1989, this stupendous achievement of English scientist Tim Berners-Lee, was promoted publicly by 1991. Gradually, it began to expand in its usage and accessibility, and reached the Indian population in the late 1990’s.

According to a report by IAMAI- the Internet And Mobile Association of India, there are approximately 46 million claimed users and 32 million active users of the internet (those who access the internet at least once a month) as of September 2007 in India. This shows an exponential growth of claimed internet users since 2000 when the number was 4.9 million, showing an average annual growth rate of almost 50%. On the other hand, active internet users have also had an annual growth rate of approximately 70% since 2000. This goes very much against popular belief regarding India’s population which is not considered to be tech-savvy by any means. Today, even the remotest of corners in the country have access to the internet. Initiatives like ITC’s e-chaupal have allowed the rural section of the society to come of age and be acquainted with the latest technologies.

Figure 1: Internet Users in India (2000- 2007)
Source: IAMAI Data

Be it education, entertainment, finance, shopping, or anything under the sun, the internet has become the ultimate resource of knowing whatever is to be known and doing whatever could possibly be done. With the advent of technology and awareness, internet accessibility is prevalent even in the second and third tier cities of the country. According to one of the IAMAI surveys conducted in September 2007, out of the 46 million claimed internet users, 17.48 million are from the top 8 metros, 9.66 million are from other metros, 5.52 million are from cities having a population between 5 to 10 lakh, and 13.34 million are from cities having a population between 2 to 5 lakh. This clearly shows the extent of penetration of the internet industry into the Indian market. No longer is internet usage restricted to the elite few who used to be the privileged ones to use it. The estimated user-base which accesses the internet was expected to be 100 million by 2007-08, as per IAMAI, which results in an astounding growth of 163% and the Indian internet users now account for 4.9% of internet users worldwide. While this might not be close enough to the USA, with 19.7% (according to internetworldstats.com), it is definitely a good start over a span of just seven years.

With broadband connectivity having such a huge impact on the industry since its inception, the provision of faster internet speed acted as a magnet to attract more and more users who were skeptical about the dial-up internet regarding its comparatively slower speed. Broadband provider guarantee high-speed connection. The current broadband to dial-up user ratio stands at 23:77 (as of Sep, 2006, according to IMRB) which clearly indicates that broadband could be the chief reason for this unprecedented growth.

Figure 2: Mode of Internet Connectivity in India (2006)
Source: IMRB Data

All these numbers are a clear indication of how much penetration has been achieved in the internet industry. This is truly an achievement and something to be proud of for each and every Indian. However, this is not the end. While we can choose to bask in the glory of our past and feel elated by such high percentages of growth rates, quite a long road lies ahead of us when we think of the entire population as a whole. We are quite a few steps ahead from the start line, but still far from the end. The great Indian dream, if you will, would be accomplished when each and every citizen of India would be empowered with the internet to lead his life in a better way.

Google Acquisition: Concrete news, or just plain ‘Skype’

Writing something on the current on-going rounds of transaction between eBay and Google regarding the acquisition of Skype is not any easy task by any means. Particularly as we bear witness to the amazing pace at which the online market is changing. But anyways, since it is the ‘in’ thing today, let me start off by saying something that Billy Crudup said to Tom cruise in Mission Impossible III after he discovered that Crudup was an ally of his enemy. “It’s complicated.”

Calling Skype as the undisputed king of the VoIP industry might not be an overstatement. Especially if you consider the fact that it has close to 280 million users and will continue to add-on to that huge list, thanks to its ever-popular brand-name. Google Talk, on the other hand, which is Google’s take on the VoIP platform, has just under one million users (according to comScore). While Skype posing a serious threat to Google could both be the biggest joke of the new world and also be a very valid point, the focus now shifts to eBay.

eBay had acquired Skype for $3.1 billion in September 2005. Almost two years after the deal was through, and shortly after signing off as Skype’s CEO to concentrate more on Joost.com along with Janus Friis, his co-founder for Skype, Niklas Zennstrom had made a statement at a tech conference held in Budapest that eBay had overpaid for Skype when it was acquired. While Joost can be described as an excellent software to watch video streaming with exceptional clarity, and starting off on a new venture is something that entrepreneurs usually have a habit of, the fact of the matter is that Skype, despite its rather healthy run-rate revenue of $400 million, is being sold, and that too at a written down price of approximately $2.28 billion.

It is without a doubt a well known fact that Google has all the monetary resources and commercial network while Skype has an extensive user-base that could be utilized by Google in a variety of ways. Say, for example, Google could send invites to Orkut, its immensely successful social networking website, to its newly acquired database, courtesy Skype. While this is all good going for Google, eBay is clearly in a soup after acquiring Skype. A project that can not be called as a failure by any means, but was not managed properly after its acquisition, sums up the story for Skype. Industry critics had raised doubts over eBay’s strategy while talks were going on by the leading retail chain to acquire a product that was clearly not its forte. While the deal is still being negotiated, only time will tell whether Google is able to bring Skype back to the position it had gained when it was first launched in August 2003.

A step by step guide on how to oversell your product: the Skype way

I believe that the title was catchy enough to make you finally land up here. So without further ado, let’s start off on the best guide on how to oversell your product, the Skype way. Marketing and sales people, pay heed. Such kind of advice is hardly floated free of cost.

Methodology
First, you develop an excellent, one of its kind product. One that has all the juice to attract the masses as well as the crème-de-la-crème. Then, gradually, you market it in a very effective manner, so that it has tens of millions of users hooked on to it. This might be the hard part, but the results that you can get out of it are worth the trouble. After your product is sufficiently popular, you begin talks with big organisations to catch their attention. Once this is done, you choose one of them and offer your product to them at such a high price that it would take years for them to recover the costs, and wait, here is the interesting part. You know your product is not worth that much. But with the help of an effective marketing team, you pull off the deal. And then, as an icing on the cake, you go out in public and blab out as to how you fooled one of the biggest players in the industry and lured them into overpaying you.

Live example
Those who are in touch with the IT industry might have guessed as to what I’m talking about. For those who still did not, thank you for taking the trouble to read till here. Here is the story; I am talking about eBay’s acquisition of Skype. When founder Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis launched Skype in August 2003, VoIP was a very small industry. The only other major player was net4phone, which eventually ended up suing Skype in 2006 for something that made no sense. If you read out the bottom line, Skype was sued for doing what net4phone could not. Getting people on to using the VoIP service, that is.

Anyway, Skype expanded in a very grand manner. Slow to start with, it eventually added on 60 million users within a span of two years. This caught the attention of eBay, and while Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. was also in the look-out for acquiring Skype, eBay finally took the booty at a heavy price of $3.1 billion. Days after signing off as the CEO of Skype after the deal was through, Niklas Zennstrom, who alongwith Janus Friis went on to develop Joost.com, told a tech conference in Budapest that Ebay had overpaid for his company. While the words were slightly jumbled up, even an amateur could have understood what he meant. This whole episode eventually took a dramatic turn when Google started bidding for Skype quite recently, but at a price that has been written down by $900 million. While this might seem to be an extremely derogatory evaluation of a very popular brand, shockingly, eBay is still interested. Probably because of the fact that Skype did not turn out the way eBay had expected, or probably the way it was projected by the former company owners.

Epilogue
While one might appreciate the marketing skills of the Skype people, it was not a good deal at all for eBay. And to add insult to injury, we have Skype’s ex-CEO talking about how he is the only smart one and sold a lemon to eBay in front of the entire world. Considering all these aspects, Google might be biting off more than it can chew. While that is all for time to tell, Mr. Zennstrom has definitely raised a few doubts over the popular belief that one should not bite the hand that feeds it.

VoIP loses another Ad-VON-t-AGE

With a rising number of VoIP providers in the industry, using the law to cut your competitors down to size seems to be the order of the day. The latest in the list of major VoIP companies that were sued are Skype and Vonage.

While Skype’s litigation is still being resolved, Vonage is one brand that has received a severe beat-down on its reputation as a service provider. More recently, it settled a lawsuit against Nortel, allowing for cross licensing of their technology. While this did not call for payment by any organization, 2007 was a relatively bad year for Vonage. AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, three major competitors in the VoIP arena, filed lawsuits regarding patent-infringement against them, which resulted in an astounding figure of $239 million to be paid by the company. Adding to the damage is the recent news that Vonage had tried to lobby the federal government, also in 2007, and spent nearly $1.4 million in the process, according to a disclosure form by the Senate’s public record office which was posted online on Feb. 13th 2008 (as per Associated Press).

Vonage was one of the first providers of VoIP back in 2001 when it was started. Its user base grew to about 1 million till 2005, but constant customer complaints and four lawsuits brought the company down in 2007. According to Patrick Monaghan, a Yankee Group analyst, Vonage’s biggest challenge is going to be countering the rising debts, which would amount to $253 million in obligations that come due in December, 2008. While this is a very big loan to pay off, the bad news apparently is far from over for Vonage. Customer volumes are also rapidly declining. While about 300,000 subscribers were added on in the third quarter of 2007, 222,215 users were lost in the same time-span, resulting in an effective addition of only 77,785, according to Monaghan. Further, trying to cancel Vonage’s services is a tedious process and can cost as much as $40. Also, transferring a Vonage phone number to a normal land-line takes 10 days, and often doesn’t work for many users. Telephone companies have also brought sufficient competition to Vonage with their own offerings having unlimited long-distance plans. As they can add satellite TV, phone and DVR services to make their product seem the better one, Vonage is clearly walking on thin ice. Quality issues also persist with voice quality dipping when users play games online. Though Vonage has assured its customers that such problems would be resolved very soon, it is not going down well with the masses.

With the US market reaching a saturation point in terms of connectivity, the future for Vonage clearly lies in the international market. However, considering the present circumstances of the industry as a whole, clearly there is a need of either a serious facelift in the interfaces of the current VoIP providers, or maybe the time has come for new players to enter into the market and provide consumers with a better voice quality and connectivity features. Measures like these are very essential, if VoIP is to expand its avenues and further grow as the new means to communicate.

VoIP: The new way to talk, or just another tech-triviality

The world is shrinking! While scientists might continue to debate on the aforementioned statement, there is another world that is constantly expanding, a world that knows no boundaries and no limitations. That world is the World Wide Web.

Touted as the best accomplishment of the human mind since the era of Edison and Graham Bell, the internet has almost 20% of the entire world’s population connected to each other via a common source. Initially started in the USA as part of technological advancement procedures, the internet was accessible to the public in the early 1990’s. While networking sites and blogging seems to be the order of the day, it’s VoIP that is coming of age as a utility that is growing in popularity and usage. The biggest example of this is Skype, which has an estimated user base of 280 million, and was acquired by eBay in September 2005. While eBay itself is in talks over selling Skype to Google, the point is that eBay, despite being from a completely different industry, i.e., online retails and auctions, chose to invest a heavy amount to acquire Skype. Clearly, they had foreseen the rise of the VoIP industry, something we bear witness to now.

VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. This is a technology that converts one’s voice into digital packets and sends it across to the receiver, where it is converted from the digital form to the analog form. This process can be customized according to specific users’ requirements, as per their needs. The process sparked off at the beginning of the 21st century and presently, there are over 50 VoIP providers in the market. These include big names like Vonage, AT&T and Nortel, to say nothing of Skype, which still is the biggest shareholder in terms of user base.

This technology allows people to communicate in a more cost-efficient manner with PC-to-PC calling being free and PC-to-Phone calling being chargeable at lower rates than a landline or a mobile connection. While this concept was received with apprehension during the early stages of its innovation, more so regarding concerns over voice quality and stable connections, VoIP has now entrusted enough faith in its efficiency to be termed as the next step in telecommunications.

This technology is clearly all set to replace the existing telephony solutions and establish itself as the voice of the new world, and quite literally at that. What remains to be seen is if the future would bring in more and more users who would like to choose VoIP over their traditional mobile phones and landline, or will this newly-found innovation get lost in oblivion, much like many others that were promising enough to start with, but could not sustain their position.

Google : All Skype-d up?

The market is abuzz with the news regarding Google’s supposed buy-out of Skype. Considering the fact that Skype in itself is the Google of PC-to-PC calling, it comes as little surprise that Google decided to buy it from eBay, which had earlier overestimated its market value and gone ahead to pay $2.6 billion (plus an additional $530 million for performance levels, which was negotiated and reduced from the initial figure of $1.7 billion) and acquired Skype in September, 2005. It had then gone on to add approximately 220 million users to Skype’s then existing customer-base of 60 million within two and a half years. Skype has till date provided its users with over 1 billion minutes of talktime inclusive of PC-to-PC and PC-to-Phone calling. The revenues earned by Skype for eBay are approximately $79 million in the first quarter and $90 million in the second quarter of 2007, fairly good going as far as cost recovery is concerned.

While this might seem all hunky-dory till now, here comes the crunch. It defies all logic to see why eBay is selling out one of its most potential-bearing products (apart from up4sale and CARad) to Google. While transacting with one of the major players in the market might seem as a healthy proposition, it’s the selling-out part that appears slightly out-of-the-way. There is also another area of concern regarding the fact that the value of Skype has been written down by $900 million, which is a big reduction considering what eBay had paid for it, to say nothing of inflation and cost-effectiveness since Skype was acquired.

The question now arises, why is eBay negotiating with Google to sell-out Skype? One of the main reasons that seems to be the prevalent one, is the fact that Skype has approximately 280 million users according to the latest statistics and Google talk has approximately 976,000 users and could seriously benefit from Skype’s database. The second reason could be a potential fusion of Google talk and the Skype software, which would do a lot of value-addition to both the brands.

The fact still remains that eBay’s sell-out of Skype might, and will raise, some serious questions. While Skype has not proven to be inefficient in any manner, it could be a matter of concern for all Skype users as to whether there is something seriously wrong in the hugely popular application regarding which it is being sold.

Full functional VoIP billing software

The drastic increase in the market ratio of VoIP service and users review motivated me to opt for IP services. The IP services allow transmitting voice, images and videos over a single network or the internet. Well, this increases the call productivity and cost efficiency, as bill is charged on the basis of per-minute call. The research on the VoIP billing software made me satisfied over the billing transactions too.

For accessing everyone’s bills, service providers or business houses refer to VoIP billing software to generate or track the customer’s bill. The VoIP billing is tightly integrated with popular gateways, gatekeepers, proxies and soft switches from recognised vendors. Currently, telephony billing system used by the businesses or providers is based on non-IP standards.

While focusing on the reasons why most of the service providers and enterprises are opting for this software based in facts. For instance, VoIP billing software integrates features like authentication, authorisation, unlimited scalability, web-based administration and accounting. If the billing is not on the time and accurate then there is chance of losing customers and revenues.

The VoIP billing system focuses even on unlimited price structures, manages complex revenue sharing relationships as well as provides comprehensive customer self-care using the Web or IVR. The billing software allows comprehensive web-based billing platforms, DID, location exchanges as well as A-Z termination routes to set up, manage, and expand VoIP businesses. With the billing software, you can even maintain complete control over product branding, design, and marketing.

In a nutshell, billing software can be the perfect solution to bill related problems. It can not only help to get your billing done fast, but also helps the provider to manage and save customer contacts as well as maintain sales reports.

New VoIP Quality Monitoring Diagnostic Platform Cuts ISP Call Center Queues

For the first time in the advanced telecommunication industry, Internet service providers or ISPs are offering their Voice over internet protocol or VOIP users to diagnose faults in the VOIP process. To check problem in the IP process, ISPs offer Vocalite, a new diagnostic platform to monitor internet telephony problem regarding the VoIP quality. Vocalite offers Epitiro, the internet performance expert, to control throughput, jitter and latency within the network core. In addition, Epitiro is designed to ensure the reliability and quality of VoIP delivery, speed troubleshooting and help the ISP to monitor and ensure VOIP quality of experience. Epitiro is flexible in nature and allows user to automate the schedule call anytime i.e. 24*7*365. For monitoring and testing, automated test schedules are considered as an important component to enable benchmarking of voice service quality before the customer do.

Vocalite is the next generation customer support solution based on a concept of empowering the subscriber's VoIP faults. Vocalite offers the diagnostic information to subscriber via web-browser on either the instructions of service provider's contact center or end-users. After completing a thorough two-way analysis of connection, Vocalite provides subscriber with a basic summary of the test and results will be automatically sent to the service provider. In the meantime Customer Service Representatives (CSR) can have an access to an extensive list of test results including Call Setup time, Dial Tone Delay and more importantly, voice quality. Moreover, CSR allows visual pass and fail indicators to assure adequate service quality and acknowledges the presence of a fault. This reduces the need of second line support staff.

From an end-user's perspective, Vocalite measures the call quality across the virtually existing provider's network. This enables network providers to keep an eye on both physical network, key applications and switches to fix any problem before they reach the end-users.

Uses of calling cards in voip

Talking for long at only few pounds made me awestruck! Yes that's true, after calling my friends and relatives across the country, I had more than half of calling amount left on my card. The voice quality was excellent without any interruptions or gaps. I found the card really worthwhile for my longer distance and international calls. Well, this is because calling cards are based on VOIP technology of packet switching technique over IP network. This packet switching network reduces the per-minute charge of the call.

Calling cards are the prepaid cards which carries pre-charged amount. These cards on VOIP are used for making long distance and international calls at cheaper rates compared to conventional PSTN. Before buying the card always focus on important points like phone rates, renew ability, rollover minutes, hidden fees and quality of call. This is because there are many providers who are offering calling cards. The best thing about the calling card on Voip is that they are easily available in affordable range i.e. $5 to $100. For making a call using calling card, one must possess high speed IP network i.e. broadband connection, Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA) as well as phone.

Calling near and dear ones across the world from calling cards reduces the cost and increases the efficiency. I would like to share few points with others who are looking forward to avail calling cards on VOIP:

1. Longer distance and international calls
2. Reduces the call rate
3. Minimum Latency on call
4. Increases the call efficiency
5. Increases the voice quality
6. No geographical constraint
7. Reliable and secure mode of communication
8. Offers functionality

In order to save money on longer distance or international call, calling cards are very effective. The uses that I came across made me really happy and satisfied.

Buying Advice: Essential before you move ahead!

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) is a well known term that can be easily heard in every nook and corner of global village. However remember, before you opt for VOIP services you must look out for best buying advice. Well, undoubtedly these advices have helped me in selecting VOIP services. I would like to share few points with people who are looking forward to avail VOIP services:

1. You must evaluate toll-free calling between all location as this will help you to know actual potential savings.
2. Always opt for authorized VOIP provider.
3. Never forget to investigate about provider.
4. Check out for high-end communication facilities like 3-way communication, caller ID, call waiting and so on.
5. Always buy new VOIP equipment as used equipment can be problematic.
6. Look for the provider that allows you to send images, videos and data through same line. This will increase the VOIP efficiency.
7. Check or enquire about voice quality.
8. Look for provider that offers flawless connectivity between sender and receiver.
9. Importantly, check tariff plans to make long distance and international calling at cheaper rates.

Though, when I made the selection, I considered aforesaid points and that have helped me a lot. Hence, for your best selection you must go through tips for buying VOIP services.

Hosted VOIP Services - The growth continues.....

The way we communicate is changing by the day. And the implementation of new and innovative techniques is playing a significant role in this context. One could take the example of hosted VOIP services, for instance.

In hosted VoIP services, the physical telecom equipment is located off the premises of the client companies, this means that maintenance of equipment is not the client's liability. This inherent flexibility of hosted services makes them very much popular among corporate houses - more specifically, the small and medium businesses.

Hosted VOIP services have special significance for small businesses. And the reasons are quite evident. Small businesses often lack the capital or the infrastructure to deploy and manage full-fledged enterprise-wise VOIP solutions. For this category of business users, subscribing to hosted VoIP services is the next logical alternative. In this discussion, we are assuming that the business groups are thinking rationally. They want to employ the best that technology has to offer to enhance their profit margins.

Recent figures substantiate the claim mentioned above. According to the result of recent research, the use of hosted VoIP services has increased significantly, more so among small businesses. The future global trend is that the growth in hosted VoIP services would continue.

These results should not cause any raised eye-brows. In addition to flexibility, hosted VOIP services have several other factors going for it as well. Significant cost savings and feature functionality are two of the more important factors that need to be mentioned in this context. Easy integration with other data networks also go in favour of hosted VoIP.

The popularity of hosted VOIP solutions is expected to increase further with the convergence of voice, data, video and mobility.