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Google’s True VoIP Intentions

Today I was reading an article about Google getting into the print magazine advertising business via it’s

AdWords program. The print program is similar to the way ads work online except in print an advertiser gets a photo and a listing about the product. Multiple advertisers would share a page. In the article it mentioned that Google offered advertisers an 800 number that they could use so Goolge could track the ad’s performance. It didn’t seem like this was mandatory but then again this is an experimental program – or so it seems.

I then read Om’s blog where he ties the advertising in print to a pay per call model and further surmises that perhaps Google got into VoIP so they could not compete with Skype as many people believe but instead use VoIP as a basis for a foray into pay per call advertising.

Om could be 100% correct on this but I still think that Google wants to analyze our conversations and play relevant ads as we speak. I also think a natural extension of their business model is to bring up search results on the telephone number when a call comes in. I imagine a tabbed page with information from the Better Business Bureau for telemarketing calls, a White Pages listing, Yellow Pages listings and other directories of interest.

You can take this out to the Nth degree if you think about it. A person calls and their blog comes up along with a photo from Google images.

I see some tight integration between search and incoming phone calls in our future.

I have also surmised in the past that Google can use speech to parse conversations for objectionable content. Companies like SER’s Sertainty product do this in the contact center space already and if you think about it, corporations really don’t have a way to ensure that their workers and call center agents aren’t using profanity and other language that isnt permitted on the telephones. Think about SarBox and HIPAA compliance as just two reasons a corporation needs these sorts of controls. Moreover, call monitoring may be needed to protect trade secrets or even national security?

I imagine Google having the capability to monitor all phone conversations in your organization in real-time and alert the proper people of calls that meet certain filtered requirements.

Of course my predications may be a bit far away so for now, Om… Perhaps you are right and Google is simply trying to a make a buck from pay per call. At least that is the plan today. What will tomorrow bring?

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Dell Dissatisfaction

Jeff Jarvis’ BuzzMachine blog seems to have become the place where Dell bashing can be done by a group of people who feel they have been treated poorly by the computer leader. Here is a single post from the blog and a search on a variety of Dell posts.

I wonder if this sort of public dissatisfaction with Dell is one of the reasons that MPC Computers is having so much success with their ad campaign that touts the fact that MPC agents are based in the US.

In addition to this blog entry about MPC Computers I wrote an extensive article with an interview of a top MPC executive in the September issue of Customer Interaction Solutions magazine. If you don’t get this publication, you can subscribe to this free magazine here.

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Donation Day

I just donated to the Red Cross to help hurricane victims and while I was at it I donated to another cause as well. Bob Liu, the executive Editor of TMCnet brought the following multiple sclerosis bike tour to my attention. He will be riding later this month. One of Bob's neighbors came down with MS earlier this summer by the way. If you are interested in donating please click the above link or if you want to sponsor Bob please e-mail him at rliu(at)tmcnet.com (please replace the (at) with an "@").

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The Return of AT&T

It seems that SBC is leaning towards changing it’s name to AT&T. Other options are a new name or Cingular. The latter name probably won’t work as BellSouth is a part owner of the Cingular Wireless name and probably won’t allow it’s business partner to use a name very similar to one it partly owns.

In my opinion AT&T is the best name for the new organization and is the likely choice. This name has international recognition and will help the company more easily sell VoIP services around the world.

Living in Connecticut, I grew up with AT&T, and the regional BOC became Southern New England Telephone (SNET) and then it became SBC through an acquisition. In about 20 years I, we, the US telecom industry has come full circle.

What does this say about the state of telecom in the US? It tells me there is less competition.

Just a few years ago there was going to be a slew of new players in the telecom market. We all expected this to happen. It didn’t.

Many competitive providers such as CLECs and ISPs are now scrambling for ways to compete in this brave new world. VoIP seems to be one of the ways this will happen.

You may argue that VoIP allows more competition, not less. You are correct but we still don’t have more broadband competition which in my opinion we desperately need.

If you are familiar with the now famous Brand X case you know that Brand X Internet was a company fighting to be able to open up cable lines to competition to allow ISPS to provide internet service over cable lines. The Supreme Court struck this notion down and the FCC was empowered via this act to kill DSL-based competition as well.

In an article about the Brand X decision shortly after the verdict, Brand X owner Jim Pickrell told TMCnet. "It's bad for consumers and it is bad business . . . [Brand X is] effectively locked out . . . It's an end to competition in broadband and telephone . . . For us it's a disaster."

Jim has carried the torch for the rest of the competitive industry. He is the one person in the limelight and pushed for more, not less competition in the telecom space.

Don’t get me wrong… The FCC says it is also for competition but they believe that cable companies, LECS, broadband over power line (BPL) providers, satellite and WiMAX-based service providers will provide all the competition we need.

In other words, wiping out a bunch of small CLECs and ISPs is OK in the short run because in the long run we will have a smaller number of more financially stable competitors.

Pundits (including myself at times) will tell you that two competitors don’t make a competitive market and satellite, WiMAX and BPL account for negligible market share.

Getting back to Brand X and Jim Pickrell. As an evangelist for open telecom and continued competition in the CLEC and ISP space, he has no equal. At leas t in my opinion.

We thought Jim Pickrell would be the ideal person to invite to TMC’s Internet Telephony Conference & Expo to educate today’s services providers on how to compete in this brave new world of competitive competition.

Mr. Pickrell will address an audience at the show and also have a press briefing with reporters and analysts where he will discuss how the supreme court ruling has affected his customers.

We will certainly have more information for you as we get closer to the event. Please check out ITEXPO for more details.

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VoIP 2.0

VoIP 2.0 is almost here. I really feel the momentum building and since TMC applied for and subsequently received the trademark on the term Internet Telephony back in 1997, I have never seen so much excitement and activity in the market. Great things are happening in VoIP!

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SonyEricsson Gets Into VoIP

Perhaps one of the most telling signs of success in the VoIP market is all the large companies jumping into our space and Microsoft, Google, AOL and others were logical ones to jump in. I am surprised that now computer hardware makers are getting into the game. For example Sony Ericsson is touting a new headset the HBH-608 and its ability to work with a Sony VAIO notebook can allow users to make VoIP calls to the bluetooth headset.

The mainstreaming of VoIP is probably what is leading to record attendance to tour Internet Telephony Conference & Expo and as I mentioned yesterday, ITEXPOs routinely have the most attendees of VoIP events.

Speaking of industry growth I was speaking to a reporter yesterday who was trying to ascertain the size of the VoIP market in dollars. Of course it was the consumer market he was after. I figured somewhere between 4-5 million people are using VoIP in this country if you factor in cable companies, Vonage and others. They pay an average of $25 or so. This would put the market size at around 1.2 billion dollars

I went on  to say it is the services that tomorrow’s service providers need to worry about as voice is commoditized and if you aren’t able to do innovating things and charge for them, where will you be in 3-5 years as prices drop further.

I kept thinking of TMC’s Consumer VoIP Marketing Summit that will take place at ITEXPO in October and how we will be discussing ways for service providers to market their services to maximize sales and profits. The feedback  to this session has been exquisite as it seems service providers are really pricing in a vacuum today and other than getting negative feedback from bloggers when they go too high, they don’t know if their pricing is the most profitable it can be.

I wish the show was sooner but I have to wait to October 24-27 for it all to take place. Until then, I welcome you as a regular reader of my blog.

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