Canada's federal CRTC recently made a decision to regulate VoIP services. Added John Meldrum, vice-president of SaskTel: “By regulating only our VoIP service, the commission is attempting to maintain artificially high prices. This also inhibits innovation, reducing the telephone companies' incentives to develop and launch new services.” I am pleasantly surprised to see these large telcos of old embracing new technology. Considering the cable companies will potentially have them at a disadvantage by offering broadband via cable instead of DSL makes me wonder what they have up their sleeve. more...
July 2005 Archives
Hmm, no... not really. Cool devices (software and hardware) are only cool if you can use them to communicate with others who may not be using the same cool device. Andy would know, he is getting asked to test everyone's stuff. It looks like the early days of VoIP are back but this time in full color. Now we have SIP devices not interoperating with other SIP devices. Come on guys, do the interop! All the cool kids are doing it. Email Robert Sparks and go to SIPit already! The 17th event is being held in Stockholm, hosted by Hotsip. Registration ends Aug. 14. Grab your best engineers and head out, they will love you for it and you will not believe just how valuable these events are. If there is one interop event you need to take part in.. it's SIPit.
There is a lot of fuss about E911 or the lack thereof which apparently gives the FCC ammo to shut down VoIP services who don't comply. To this I say B*** SH*** Andy got it right. Why is the government so adamant about E911 for VoIP when most cellular networks do not offer anything better?! Yes I understand how triangulation works but most wireless operators do not have the wherewithal to use that technology. Heck, if we are going to assign responsibility like that to VoIP why not short wave radio or CBs or Walkie Talkies!! I know, it sounds ridiculous doesn't it! So does this new mandate of E911 for VoIP and the crazy timelines the FCC have imposed. Everyone knows it's the big telcos once again applying pressure and lobbying the right politician, neither of them knowing next to nothing about VoIP. Most of the smaller VoIP providers can not afford to deal with this from a legal or operational perspective, not to mention the hassle it will impose on the users. Russell Shaw has some good comments on this. Another good example of Uncle Sam stomping on Free Enterprise. I sincerely doubt the telcos of old were treated this way when 911 was first mandated. I think we need another petition Jeff!
VoIP Security gets more attention as Phil Zimmerman builds prototype of PGP VoIP. Wired features an interview with Zimmerman on PGP VoIP. Excerpt... Like PGP and PGPfone, which he created as human rights tools for people around the world to communicate without fear of government eavesdropping, Zimmermann hopes his new program will restore some of the civil liberties that have been lost in recent years and help businesses shield themselves against corporate espionage. It should be interesting to see what the VoIPSA (VoIP Security Alliance) and the others involved at the IETF have to say about Zimmerman's proposal. VoIP Security in a nutshell: Eavesdropping - Listening in / recording calls without the participant's consent. I think it would probably be easier to for the average hacker to jack into the PSTN network as the tools are already abundant for that. Denial-of-service (DoS) attacks - Usually a packet storm aimed at a critical central server in the VoIP network of choice Registration or Identity Theft - SIP traditionally requires the registration of an IP address with their SIP ID or URI. Today this URI can be spoofed, that needs to get fixed and the IETF gurus are working on it. SPIT (Spam over Internet Telephony) - Spammers can create a spam engine that blasts a great number of calls per second. SPIM - (Spam over Instant Messaging) - Bulk and potentially malicious spam sent to an IM user's ID. Since many of the new applications are IM/VoIP apps we need to consider this. Caller ID Phishing - Spammers can recreate the caller ID being sent to any one they chose, making it harder to NOT pick up the phone. One thing is for sure, we need to work on this. Spammers are smart, it won't take them long to figure out how to make great sums of money sending junk calls to your phone.
Every operator/portal/service provider/mso [Yahoo,AOL,Gizmo,Comcast, Verizon,EarthLink,etc.] out there are rushing to create, or recreate, an IM VoIP soft client that has all the appeal of Skype with open standard compatibility. Since the most predominant and most promising VoIP protocol out their is SIP [Session Initiation Protocol] we are seeing a migration away from proprietary protocols towards SIP. The next significant phase in the growth of IP communications will include open standards P2P VoIP. David Bryan and Cullen Jennings, along with a boatload of very smart industry leaders in the IETF, are working on new extensions to the existing SIP protocol. It's called P2P SIP. After looking at the draft I would say it has a ways to go yet but I can see where this technology could become very useful to all VoIP operators like Free World Dialup operated by Jeff Pulver. & his new CTO Henry Sinnreich. Apparently they think so too considering they are looking for a response to their RFI which includes an earlier component of P2P SIP called Chord. Even operators like Vonage or device manufacturers like PhoneGnome and Linksys PAP2 could make use of P2P SIP. Everyone is looking for a new solution for P2P VoIP, I think P2P SIP is the answer, do you? Read the latest P2P SIP draft and tell me what you think.
We are seeing more progress in P2P SIP, an update to the IETF draft has been recently submitted by David Bryan and Cullen Jennings. The changes are mostly surrounding syntax and handling methods as opposed to incorporating new components. I am excited about the progress being made here and I am hopeful that we will see some integrated NAT traversal and auto-provisioning with P2P SIP in mind. This work could easily have a profound effect on VoIP, Video and IM as we know it. Any operator running a SIP network today cold benefit greatly from this technology. Good Stuff!
Tom picked up on this thread from CNET. It looks like Cisco is still hot on the acquisition trail, today they announced their Linksys division has aquired Kiss Technology of Denmark. Kiss manufacturers DVD players and Digital Video Recorders or DVRs, a consumer electronics (CE) company. This will be the first CE company Cisco has aquired, at $61M. What this might mean for Linksys and Cisco is huge. Combine DVRs, VoIP, Video and wireless Internet and you have the makings of one hell of a Set-top box. I think we are going to see some really exciting stuff come out of Cisco in the next 5 years. more...
Those who know Nero are probably aware that they build very popular CD/DVD burning software. Nero also is the parent company to SIPPs the SIP VoIP software company launched in recent years. It looks like Nero are gunning for the Triple Play. This could be interesting as we see set-top boxes gain more popularity. It is also a better fit for Nero as they were not exactly a hit with their SIP client software. more..
Tom Keating writes today on a story from the Dallas Morning news about CompUSA seeing huge growth in VoIP sales within their stores. I am sure this is true but I wonder if those retailers are ready for P2P SIP. My sources tell me that when it comes to placing VoIP product on retail shelves the stores are asking for the moon and stars. As an example, if a device manufacturer wants to place hardware on the shelves with a FREE VoIP (soon P2P SIP) service attached the stores want a residual. A residual on WHAT!? If it's free I am failing to see where the residual is coming from. The likes of Best Buy, CompUSA etc. need to gain some VoIP understanding. If VoIP is really going to take off in their stores they need to approach the free for use networks differently. The likes of Vonage who apparently have never-ending deep pockets are about to learn that P2P SIP will change their networks forever. P2P SIP will be bundled with various devices and the device manufacturers should not be penalized for doing so. They should be able to sell their products in these stores based on a one time sale revenue split and if the network eventually does generate revenue that is when the retailers will get their share. Many of these P2P SIP offerings that will be coming down the pipe will have Voicemail, PSTN service etc. but many will not offer that right away. If the retailers really want to see their VoIP revenue blossom they need to take a new tact.
By way of Andy I have read a posting Broadband Reports regarding Vonage potentially taking over the ill VocalTec [VOCL is their ticker symbol] who are now on the ropes. This makes a great deal of sense as long as the deal can be structured properly. There is always a concern when doing and RTO, once the deal is done, that thousands of anxious shareholders who look forward to regaining their losses [I expect there are a few considering the state of VocalTec today] to sell a great amount of stock the moment it goes north of $1. I am sure Citron and company have this covered.
There are new open standards in the mix that are paving the way for the next phase in IP communications. SIP has come a log way but still needs work, especially for P2P. These new variations on SIP will carve a new niche and blow the doors wide open for endpoint-centric communications. Vodafone says it will be turning off Skype in it's networks in Germany. If Skype used this new variation of SIP optimized for P2P networks it would not be so easy to deny them access to any network. Operators, including Skype, could also use it to replace their IM and IP Voice infrastructure and save milions in the process.
VocalTec is the grandfather of VoIP and was just getting started when I got into this business. They looked unstoppable then and did very well over the next 8 years. 2+ years ago, right around the time my partner and I founded Xten, SIP started making it's presence felt. VocalTec was one of the companies who did not pay much attention to SIP and stuck with their primary H.323 offerings. The decision not to move forward with SIP is haunting them, it's looking like they are going to have to start cutting back substantially unless they can get a cash injection. We all know what happens when most small-med size companies cut-back, the death spiral usually follows closely behind. more...
Global IP Sound or GIPS have been doing quite well recently with wins including a deal with Microsoft. It would be interesting to know what the MS deal looks like. I have heard via another company who have licensed GIPS technology that their revenue model doesn't seem as though it will be able to sustain itself and includes unlimited pricing for as low as 50k. Other sources I have spoken to also say that GIPS will soon be facing some pretty serious competition in the Voice media dept. Considering the source is someone I have a great deal of respect for I am inclined to believe him. Choice is a good thing, which is what current and prospective GIPS customers will soon have.
This is my first blog entry from my Blackberry, now there are fewer excuses for not writing everyday.
