August 2004 Archives

There has been a flurry of VoIP news, announcements, and VoIP reports, which all point to the same thing. VoIP is exploding!

For example, according to this Yankee Group VoIP release, more than one million US consumers will have subscribed to an IP telephone service by the end of this year, up from only 131,000 at the end of 2003.

The report also predicts that 17.5 million US households will be using the technology by the end of 2008.

A research report issued last week by Synergy Research Group concurs that VoIP sales are on the rise. According to the report, the worldwide enterprise IP telephony market grew about 75 percent in the second quarter of this year to $728 million, up from $414.7 million the same quarter last year.

This IP Telephony Hots Up article talks about how the Australian IP telephony market is hotting up, with around 60 per cent of medium and large companies set to deploy the technology by 2007.

According to the IDC study, one in seven medium and large companies (14 per cent) have already deployed IP telephony and another 47 per cent will be implementing it in the next three years. IDC stated this uptake represented almost a $1 billion market for enterprise IP telephony equipment and VoIP services.

Further, IDC predicts that VoIP revenue will grow from $3.3 billion to a massive $15 billion+ by 2007!

A CNet article titled "VoIP picks up momentum" also discusses the growth of VoIP.

But if you really want proof in the pudding that VoIP is hot, check out this GoogleFight, which compares the number of Google results for two keywords. So I compared two hot keywords - "VoIP" and "Britney Spears".

Considering all the porn sites that add Britney Spears name to their website promising nude photos of her, as well as hundreds of Britney Spear fan sites, etc. who do you think will win?

Is it VoIP or Britney Spears?
Click here to find out:
GoogleFight - VoIP vs. Britney Spears

And just for fun, here are some other interesting Google Fights:
GoogleFight - George Bush vs. John Kerry
GoogleFight - Tom Keating vs. Jeff Pulver

Ok, I win that Google Fight, but that's not fair since my name is a bit more common than Jeff Pulver's. Ok, I'll make the fight fairer by adding "voip" to end of my name so only my VoIP articles come up even though I also write gadget, call center, wireless, and other types of articles which will be excluded.
GoogleFight - Tom Keating voip vs. Jeff Pulver
Well, looks like I win that Google Fight too. Maybe Jeff needs to start blogging more! : )

Skype has launched an Apple version of their popular P2P VoIP client.

The nine million people using Skype's Internet telephony service will now be able to chat to Mac OS X users.

You can download the beta version from Skype's website.

As of late, several phone companies have been partnering with cable and satellite TV providers to complete their triple play, while at the same time, several major cable firms are moving strongly into phone services via VoIP.

Well, my cable provider Charter Communications is set to complete the "telecom triple play" with the addition of phone service.

Service providers have long considered the so-called triple play of voice, video and data the Holy Grail because it allows them to become a customer's sole provider with one package price and one bill.

Charter announced deals Monday that will allow it to add VoIP phone services to its cable TV and cable Internet access offerings. Local Charter customers are already receiving fliers touting the Internet phone service as "coming to your area soon."

How "soon" was not specified in the flier or in a press release announcing the deals.

The flier states that customers will be able to keep their existing phone number and hypes "simple" calling plans that feature unlimited local and long-distance calling plans for "one low price", although prices are not given.

Charter's entry into VoIP just reaffirms my suspicions that VoIP players such as AT&T, Vonage, Packet8, Broadvoice, etc. could be "on the outside looking in" since they "need the broadband cable providers to provide VoIP access". I discussed this very real possiblity here:
Death Knell for Vonage, Net2Phone, Packet8, Broadvoice, Lingo?

and here:
AT&T makes deal with the devil (cable companies)

as well as here: AT&T is not a phone company - they're "a networking company"

I'm currently a Vonage user and I also use Charter for my cable TV and broadband service. I should state that I'm a loyal and happy Vonage customer, but if Charter can offer a good package deal that lowers my overall monthly cost, then I'm afraid I may have to jump ship from Vonage to Charter.

The fact that I can keep my phone number makes it that much easier to not be married (or chained) to any telecom provider. Now features and especially price will be the deciding factors and not losing your phone number.

It is interesting times indeed in the telecom world!

Welcome to my VoIP & Gadget Blog. My name is Tom Keating and I've been in telecom/datacom since 1994 when I joined Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC), a publisher of VoIP news, call center & CRM news, as well as other telecom information. My interests in computers started at the age of 12 in 1982. My first computer was a Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer (CoCo) and I subscribed to Rainbow Magazine which covered the CoCo. Growing up a computer geek, I pursued computer science in college and graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Connecticut.

In 1995 my boss, Rich Tehrani offered me a new challenge - create a labs that tests CTI Computer Telephony Integration), the precursor to VoIP, as well as call center products, and other telecom products for TMC's magazines. So in 1995 I created CTI Labs, which later became TMC Labs - one of the leading sources for unbiased opinions and reviews in the VoIP, call center, datacom/telecom industries. They say it's unusual for a programmer/engineer to have decent writing skills, but fortunately I have been blessed with an engineering mind along with a knack for writing.

I've written articles for CTI Magazine, Communications Solutions Magazine, Telemarketing Magazine, Planet PDA Magazine, Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine, and more.I wrote the world's first VoIP review for a print publication - a review of the VocalTec Internet Phone VoIP software, which you can read more about in my VoIP History blog.

In 1996, I helped launch Internet Telephony Magazine - the FIRST magazine covering VoIP, IP telephony, etc. and still considered the premiere news source for the VoIP industry. Back then, the carriers laughed at us when we asked their opinion of whether we should launch this VoIP magazine. I'm never one to say "I told you so", but look who's laughing now!

In addition to my CTO & VP titles, I'm also an Executive Technology Editor (journalist) writing articles for both Internet Telephony Magazine as well as Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine - and of course I wrote for this blog. One of my "claim to fames" was breaking the major Skype outage story before the mainstream media or other bloggers. In a follow-up post my prediction about the cause of the issue, namely Windows Update, was proved to be correct. I've broken other stories and I've done extensive reviews of many VoIP products.

I hope you enjoy my blog and be sure to check out my Photo Gallery.

If you need to reach me, you can use the Contact form in the menu above.

I came across an interesting release that claims they have developed the world's first Wi-Fi wall outlet.

Here's an excerpt:
Aruba Wireless Networks (Aruba) and Ortronics Inc., a global leader in enterprise structured cabling systems, today announced they have developed the world’s first Wi-Fi wall outlet.

The new patent-pending Wi-Jack™ Wi-Fi wall outlet will be marketed and manufactured by Ortronics and will integrate Aruba’s next generation enterprise wireless LAN (WLAN) technology directly into an office network wall outlet.

Today, most access points (APs) are deployed in the ceiling at significant cost and on-going operational expense. By deploying Wi-Fi wall outlets as part of a structured wireless system, corporations can now cost-effectively build high-capacity, high performance wireless environments that can be easily managed from a central point.

You can read the full release here:Ortronics.com | Company News - Press Release

Andy Abramson's blog brought to my attention an interesting interview of AT&T's David Dorman where he discusses AT&T's future direction, including how VoIP will play in AT&T's plans. Overall, Dorman does a good job at deflecting some of the "rumors" about AT&T setting itself up to be sold (which I just recently blogged here)

You can play the AT&T interview here.

Fool.com: Ma Bell Up for Sale? [Motley Fool Take] August 23, 2004

This article has an interesting "theory" that with AT&T's latest financial and marketing moves, including a strong push for VoIP offerings (AT&T CallVantage), that AT&T is setting itself up for sale or takeover bid. This is an incredible claim if it is true. Is it possible that the exponential growth of VoIP has expedited the demise of a traditional carrier? I'm not ready to buy into that theory just yet. However, I will say that the growth of VoIP has forced carriers to change their business models, including AT&T's.

If only the carriers listed to Rich Tehrani and myself in 1998 when we launched Internet Telephony Magazine. We knew VoIP would one day before a feasible business model, but instead the carriers looked at us like we were crazy and said, "You’re crazy. VoIP is for hobbyists and chat. There are no business applications for Internet Telephony." Boy, were they wrong! (Side note: Remember VocalTec’s Internet Phone product sold at CompUSA, one of the first VoIP applications?)

It only took the carriers 6 years to come around, but I think they finally get it.

I was just reading this article: Net2Phone Out2Dry and it brings up some interesting points regarding the positioning of phone companies/Tier 1 carriers, cable companies, and the likes of Net2Phone, Vonage, Lingo, etc.

It discusses how Sprint picked up a cable-telephony contract from Mediacom Communications Corp. and how that could spell trouble for Net2Phone which is also trying to get a foothold in cable telephony.

The article goes on to say that the reason why Mediacom chose Sprint was because of crucial telecom features such as 911 service. Of course, a counterpoint to the 911 argument is that Vonage, which is a similar company to Net2Phone supports 911 just fine.

But certainly it is possible that the Tier 1 carriers can offer advanced features that Vonage, Packet8, Lingo, etc. cannot offer, including bundling various services (broadband data, voice, and perhaps TV/video in the future).

In fact, AT&T CallVantage has some really cool features that some of the other boradband VoIP players do not. In fact, an AT&T insider told me, "Other cool features are on the way that will blow away Vonage." Whether that is true or not remains to be seen. In my opinion, AT&T CallVantage needs to come down in price then worry about the features. Or at least offer a base feature set with a low monthly cost and then offer some ala-carte features for say $1/month per feature. This way they can compete price-wise with the likes of Lingo, Packet8, Vonage, etc.

The deal between Sprint (a phone company) and Mediacom (a cable company) brings to mind my argument just last week where I argued that the cable companies could pull a Benedict Arnold on AT&T and take VoIP customers for themselves.

I argued in that blog entry (AT&T makes deal with the devil (cable companies)), that it "Seems to me AT&T could be shooting itself in the foot. In fact, several cable companies already offer voice. For example, CableVision offers Optimum Voice (voice over cable). It certainly seems to be strange bedfellows to me, but maybe I'm missing the big picture."

Andy Abramson offered some good counterpoints to this in the comments section of my blog entry.

Putting that argument aside for a moment, maybe now with AT&T and Sprint brokering deals with cable companies, small VoIP broadband companies like Vonage, Lingo, and Broadvoice will be on the outside looking in. Could this spell the death knell for Vonage, Net2Phone, Packet8, Broadvoice, and Lingo? You tell me...

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has been hinting at their HP-branded iPod for some time now.

Cnet is reporting the details of the HP-branded iPod which is called Apple iPod from HP.

Check out the article and specifications here:HP tips its hand on new iPod | CNET News.com

Basically, the specifications are exactly the same! I would have expected HP to add some value to the HP version, such as some new feature or tighter integration with Windows. But alas, it seems to me like all HP did was slap their HP logo on the iPod.

GET ANY DIRE AND URGENT REQUESTS TO HELP MOVE $5 MILLION DOLLARS FROM SOME NIGERIANS LATELY? (YES THE ALL CAPS IS ON PURPOSE)

Ok, back to normal case. Well, I was reading this news story, allAfrica.com: West Africa: VoIP Wears Human Face in West Africa, which talks about how VoIP is taking off in Africa.

A quote from the article states, "Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) warms-up for its regular technical meeting, focusing on the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), with theme: 'VOIP: Face to Face with The next revolution in Telecommunicating,' the recent report of Balancing Act's Africa, seems to give credence to its over-whelming deployment in the sub-Saharan Africa."

I couldn't help but think to myself "Gee, now that's just great, now I'll be receiving Nigerian VoIP spam (at little to no cost to them) that bypasses the U.S. Do Not Call (DNC) Lists and is almost impossible to track."

This reminds me, there have been lots of articles lately discussing VoIP spam, just wait till the Nigerians catch win of this.

Ok, maybe it's a bit insensitive of me to think this, but hey, if it does happen, don't say I didn't warn you.

This VoIP article titled "Competition: Gone Today, Here Tomorrow" just confirms what I blogged several days ago - that AT&T is not "surrendering" the residential market.

In fact, it bears repeating a quote from my blog entry, AT&T The Sleeping Giant Awakens to Blitzkrieg the VoIP Market, where I said "No friggin way!". AT&T is NOT giving up, they are not surrendering.

Far from it. Like I said in that previous blog entry, AT&T is "going in the back door" to avoid the spaghetti of telecom regulation.

AT&T's "excuse" for supposedly abandoning the residential market had to do with the discount program, called the Unbundled Network Elements Platform (UNE-P) rate structure, which forced the Baby Bells to lease equipment & lines to AT&T (and other phone companies) at artificially low prices established by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). AT&T protested that the loss of these price controls was the end of local competition and consumer choice for local phone service, forcing their hand and making them abandon the residential market.

But, AT&T pulled a fast one and many mainstream journalists fell for it writing artlcles stating that AT&T was giving up and abandoning the residential market. Anything for a big news headline. Sheesh!

Just look at the evidence that AT&T is NOT abandoning the residential market:
Exhibit A: The AT&T Olympic commercials promoting AT&T CallVantage
Exhibit B: I've seen many Google ads and banner ads promoting CallVantage based on certain VoIP keywords. (though it looks like their Google keyword campaign may have slowed)

My suggestion to journalists uneducated in VoIP or specifically AT&T's plans? Go read AT&T The Sleeping Giant Awakens to Blitzkrieg the VoIP Market, maybe you'll learn something.

Mr. Blog (David Beckemeyer) and Karl Brose are funding development for STUN support for the popular Asterisk open-source PBX.

This is great news since STUN support is a key feature to have in a VoIP deployment to get around the firewall "nasties".

You can read about it here: Mr Blog Entry - 07/07/2004: STUN Support for Asterisk

Some Breaking news to share...

Vonage has closed a $105 million series D financing round led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from 3i, Meritech Capital Partners and investors. Vonage senior management also participated in the round.

This latest round of financing, which brings total investment in the company to $208 million, will be used to accelerate expansion of Vonage’s service in the United States and abroad, including Canada, the U.K., the Pacific Rim and Latin America and to support the development of new offerings.

Sheesh! I just blogged 10 minutes ago about how it seems everyone in the VoIP industry is making announcements about partnering and selling their products in retail stores and partnering with broadband router manufacturers.

Well, before I could finish my cup of coffee, into my Inbox comes similar news. AT&T CallVantage is now being sold online via Amazon.

Check out the news:
AT&T CallVantage Service Now Online@Amazon.com

Boy, what a flurry of announcments the past few days about VoIP providers partnering with retail outlets (BestBuy) or partnering with broadband router manufacturers (LinkSys, NetGear) to embed VoIP functionality in their routers. All of the aforementioned companies in parenenthesis have some sort of deal involving VoIP.

Well, add Fry's Electronics to the VoIP bandwagon!

Here's the news release:

8x8 ADDS FRY'S ELECTRONICS TO GROWING LIST OF PACKET8 RETAILERS

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 24, 2004 -- 8x8, Inc. (Nasdaq: EGHT), the Packet8 broadband voice over internet protocol (VoIP) and videophone communications service provider, announced that beginning August 27th, Fry's Electronics, a leading electronics retailer serving the western U.S., will be offering the Packet8 Broadband Videophone and Packet8 Broadband Phone Adapter.

The 28 store chain, with locations in California, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Illinois, Georgia and Texas, is considered one of the industry's premiere retailers of products representing the latest technological trends and advances in the personal computer marketplace. 8x8's Internet telephony service offerings consistently display feature and capability achievements on the cutting edge of communication technology, including the industry's first enhanced E911 calling capability and the technological sophistication of the new Packet8 DV326 videophone, introduced in June 2004.

The Packet8 Broadband Videophone transmits high quality audio and crisp instant-on video communications over a standard broadband Internet connection with the ease and convenience of regular telephone service. Previous videophone technology has been limited by bandwidth capabilities of the PSTN (public switched telephone network), which hampered the delivery of crisp real-time video images. Because it is based on SIP, an international Internet protocol standard, the Packet8 videophone achieves a level of technology and performance sophistication previously not possible.

The Packet8 Broadband Phone Adapter enables Internet users to enhance the functionality of their high speed connection with a telephone service that is affordable, as easy to use as a regular telephone, and bundled with many advanced features not included with traditional circuit-switched telephone services. Packet8 recently became the first VoIP residential telephone service to offer "real" E911 service, which automatically routes calls and computer-based "screen pops" of caller information to emergency personnel at local Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs).

"We are very pleased that a respected retail chain like Fry's has acknowledged the strength and potential of our Packet8 offerings," said Huw Rees, 8x8 Vice President of Marketing & Sales. "Our voice products represent the industry's easiest to use and most affordable VoIP telephone service available, and our broadband videophone service opens up new ways of communicating and staying in touch with friends and family. Consumers that are thinking about trying VoIP and broadband communications can get 'hands-on' with Packet8 at all Fry's Electronics locations."