Recently in VoIP Category

Here's a very interesting article based on a speech given recently by Lieutenant General Steven Boutelle, who is CIO/G6 of the U.S. Army. The article describes the Army's IT strategy, and the general had some very interesting things to say about how they are implementing IP communications in all of their operations.

Here is a partial quote from the piece I found particularly fascinating:

Rich Tehrani says that this morning CNBC had a report on the expected Vonage IPO -- see more details in today's AP story. The price is expected to be set tonight at $16 to $18 per share selling 31.25 million shares.

Our colleague, long-time VoIP blogger Tom Keating, had scathing criticism for Vonage in his blog entry, "Time to dump Vonage," a few days ago. Tom has been using Vonage almost since it began, but has been extremely disappointed by the company's service lately. Tom says, "Two years ago, I talked about the 'death knell' for Vonage and other 'one trick pony' VoIP providers that rode the open Internet and didn't provide the last-mile data connection, so I did see this coming .... I wrote about the fall of Vonage to the triple play providers as something that's coming soon, so hold on while I go ring the death knell bell for Vonage."

Wow, those are striking words to read on the eve of Vonage's IPO; the phrase "one trick pony" strikes me as apt. I do think the IPO is an important development for the VoIP industry, but it's hard for me to feel excited about the long-term prospects for a company whose service is marketed as just a cheaper alternative to POTS.

Given the potential of IP communications, simply using the technology to cobble together a poor imitation of regular phone service reminds me of early television broadcasts that were just talking-head radio shows performed in front of a camera.

This quote from today's Reuters story reflects the sentiments of quite a few other comments I've seen today about the expected IPO:

Two back-to-back announcements from Skype have got me wondering whether Skype could become a seriously disruptive technology in the business voice market.

Last week I blogged about the Skype partnership with Angel.com. The Angel partnership allows a business to build an IVR attached to its Skype account, potentially allowing Skype to serve as a sophisticated voice system for a business.

Then this week came the announcement that Polycom is announcing a portable speakerphone that works with Skype, blogged about by Rich Tehrani. Rich makes the point that this announcement is "a huge legitimizer for Skype in the enterprise."

If Skype keeps adding capabilities like this, I think there's a serious possibility that Skype could suddenly emerge from the margins to start grabbing real market share in the business voice arena.

(Also interesting: Tom Keating's review today of the RTX Dualphone Skype telephone, a handset which doubles as a Skype phone and a PSTN phone.)

AB -- 5/2/06

Yesterday, TMCnet's Anuradha Shukla wrote about LivePerson's new click-to-call product, LiveCall. I was excited to learn about this, as LivePerson has been providing online customer care services and products for many years and has built up an interesting package called Timpani, combining contact center, web-based service, knowledge-base, and sales and marketing support.

Upon trying a demo of the product, I was disappointed in one aspect from the perspective of user experience: The click-to-talk feature ... isn't really. I will explain shortly, but let me say that these folks have what looks like a great suite of tools based on their working in this space for a long time with an impressive list of customers. Below are some interesting screen shots that show something about the Timpani user experience.

Here's a view of the interface from the point of view of a customer care agent:

Here's an end-user view that shows an example of how a customer can enter into a web chat with a sales representative, linking from a web page:

And here's a view of the chat interface from the point of view of a sales representative conversing with a customer:

Now next is an end-user view of the click-to-talk feature LivePerson began promoting this week. This represents a valuable addition to LivePerson's offerings, but I do see a problem here in terms of user experience, and possibly in terms of marketing as well. Note the popup window with the button that says "Call Me Now!":

But note also that the text instructions say, "Please enter your information below, and an associate will call you right away." In reality, the user can't click to call an agent. The way it actually works is, I click and they call me -- on my landline.

This is an example of what interaction designers call "cognitive friction." When the user enters an interaction with the application, he forms a mental model of the application with assumptions about how it should work. When the actual application doesn't fit the user's mental model, it creates friction, resulting in user confusion, frustration and errors.

Here's the scenario in this case: The user is visiting web sites in front of his personal computer with his VoIP headset plugged in. He comes to a web site with wine for sale. He is interested in ordering the Dom Perignon, but has a question about it. He clicks on what he thinks is a click-to-call button, but which actually is a you-click-and-we-call-you-back button. When he gets to the pop-up window, he clicks the Call Me Now button. But rather than calling an agent now, it sends the user's phone number (if he entered it) to the agent, who calls the user back on his landline.

At some point in this process, many users would become confused, as this does not truly represent an end-to-end VoIP-enabled click-to-call process, which is what many users nowadays (and many, many more in the very near future) will expect.

That's not to say there's no value in LiveCall. It does add a beneficial capability, but doesn't go far enough. LivePerson says that they will eventually release an end-to-end solution.

Such an end-to-end solution is possible and doesn't necessarily require an intermediary softphone client such as Skype. One example is eStara's VoIP-based Click to Call product, which doesn't seem to require any download. Today I tested it and got through to an agent quite quickly.

Here's an end-user view showing what happens if you click the eStara Click-to-Call button. Note that this popup button does have a "Talk By Phone" button (the you-click-and-we-call type of function). But you also see a "Talk by PC" button:

Here's the dialer popup you get when you click eStara's "Talk by PC" button. It's an interesting interface, which I think might be Java-based:

The reason I'm going through this whole exercise is that it makes some important points about online customer service and about designing the user experience. Over the next couple of years, we are going to see voice capabilities increasingly integrated into the web user experience and e-commerce web sites. Web-based customer service is going to have to get voice-enabled, and companies are already rolling out the tools to make this happen.

At the same time, the companies building these tools need to employ interaction design methods and usability studies to make sure they are easy-to-use, both from the end-user (customer) perspective and from that of the customer care agent in the contact center.

AB -- 4/6/06

In reporting its financial results today, Taiwanese telco Chunghwa Telecom took a swipe at VoIP, including the following in its financial summary:

"International long distance revenue decreased 4.1% due to stiff competition and the impact from VoIP."

As far as I know, Chunghwa has not launched a war against VoIP, but this statement does make me wonder whether they might be starting to build a case in favor of restricting Internet telephony in some way. This statement did get singled out in the technology news media and generated some buzz.

However, you can put the statement about VoIP in context by looking at the whole paragraph:

"On a segmental basis, total Internet and data service revenue for 2005 increased 7.2% year-over-year (YoY). Of this, Internet service revenue increased 8.6% due to strong broadband subscriber growth while data revenue increased 3.0%. Mobile revenue increased 3.9% as a result of solid subscriber growth and higher value-added services revenue. Fixed-line revenue for 2005 decreased 8.0%. Local service revenue decreased 9.3% due to mobile and ADSL substitution. Domestic long distance revenue decreased 8.3%. This drop was mainly due to mobile substitution and a decrease in transit revenue as alternative operators built and used their own circuits instead of our own. International long distance revenue decreased 4.1% due to stiff competition and the impact from VoIP."

VoIP stands out because it comes at the end of the paragraph, but really the overall picture here shows that Chunghwa's decrease in long distance revenue is part of a complex of interrelated trends involving users' switching over to Internet and mobile services generally.

I was also interested to note what Chughwa has been doing in the IPTV market:

"IPTV service was first offered in the Taipei metropolitan area in March 2004, and by the end of 2005, Chunhgwa accumulated around 100 thousand subscribers. The company expanded the service island-wide in August, and it now covers 75% of the island's population. Currently, there are 33 broadcasting channels and approximately 1,600 on-demand programs. Chunghwa also launched home banking and karaoke as a part of IPTV value-added services in August 2005."

AB -- 3/30/06

Just before I saw Laura Stotler's story on the RTX PORTALphone today, I was wondering when some provider is going to come up with a VoIP experience compelling enough to make me cross the line and switch over from POTS at home. The possibility of cheaper phone service has somehow never been enough to tip me over. I know that IP communications can offer so much more.

Pretty soon somebody is going to come up with a consumer IP communications offering that's going to grab people as soon as they see it. All over America (and maybe the world) you're going to hear people shout, "I get it! I'm buying!"

Whether the PORTALphone (called the LAN Cordless DUALphone in Europe) is really that magic offering I'm not sure, but this is heading in the right direction. This is a VoIP phone that integrates calling with multimodal communications and push-technology Web content in an exciting way. Laura's article gives enough information about the product, but I was able to get ahold of some visuals that give a good idea how the phone works and what the user experience is like. The photo to the right shows you some detail. Below you can see what the base station is like.

PORTALphone is meant to be marketed through service providers. This diagram gives an idea how it's set up:

PORTALphone's content offering comes from Casabi ("We don't make the home phone, we make it smarter."), which provides a customizable set of web-based content and services. Here are some images that show some of the services that are possible:

AB -- 3/21/06

DigiLinea, a VoIP service provider targeting the U.S. Hispanic and Latin American markets, announced today that it is offering unlimited VoIP calling plans to the U.S. and Latin America for customers residing in Latin America.

According to DigiLinea, "unlimited calling has never been offered on a local basis to clients in Central America." The company has local telecom licenses that allow it to operate legally in the region. New plans offer unlimited calling for $29.95 per month and also offer local telephone numbers in Latin America.

According to DigiLinea CEO Gregory Keough, quoted in today's announcement, the company positions its offerings particularly to serve the "millions of Central Americans in the U.S. and elsewhere .... We have found the U.S. Hispanic and Latin American markets to be a fertile ground for VoIP due to this group's high usage patterns and the high barriers to entry to provide VoIP services to this niche market. The key challenge to providing service to the US Hispanic market and locally in Latin America is not just licensing to provide VoIP services legally, but equipment delivery, setup, local payment, and Spanish-language technical and customer support -- all factors which provide high barriers to entry to those who wish to compete."

AB -- 2/24/06

TMCnet has learned of a new VoIP service launched yesterday, TalkDaddy Internet Phone Service, offering unlimited U.S. and Canada calling starting at $179 per year for residential service and $299 for business.

TalkDaddy was started by entrepreneur John S. LaTour and is headquartered in Fayetteville, Ark. TalkDaddy owns all its own equipment. The service's infrastructure, LaTour tells TMCnet, is "a fully redundant switch built on an Asterisk platform."

LaTour explains that the TalkDaddy business had its origins with a problem in his own tax preparation business, where he started using VoIP four years ago. "We had six tax preparation offices that we operated from January to April each year," he explains. "We would activate two POTS telephone lines (one voice, one fax) in January and turn them off in April." LaTour says each January they had to pay an activation fee of $150 per line, and the monthly fee was $85 before taxes and surcharges.

"I was complaining about all of this, like I still do, to my computer guru," says LaTour. "He suggested I install a 'VoIP' system. I said, 'A what?'  I had never heard of VoIP. He explained that we could use our existing (i.e., already paid for) Internet connections for telephone service. What? No more Southwestern Bell? My reply was, 'Do it!'"

LaTour continues: "The first year we operated, the system was unreliable. The second year, the software and firmware were upgraded and the system worked much better. The third year, I threw away my office PBX system and we went entirely with VoIP. The phone calls in our offices in the next state over sounded like they were next door. We never looked back."

He says last summer he gave an ATA to a friend in the Phillippines and asked him to try out the service from there. When the friend called, LaTour says, "He sounded like he was next door! It not only works in the next-door state, it works around the world!"

TalkDaddy allows calls to land lines and cell phones in the U.S. and Canada and to land lines in Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia,  Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey,  United Kingdom and Venezuela.

The TalkDaddy service includes voice mail, caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding, free 411 directory assistance and international calling from cell phones.

"We are ready and able to give the folks at Vonage a run for their money," says LaTour. "We provide more service for less money."

AB -- 2/24/06

One Stop Systems (OSS), a manufacturer of PCI Express technology, has announced a new MAX Express Dual Xeon System Host Board (SHB). Company President Steve Cooper says the new SHB is meant to expand One Stop's offerings "into single board computers ... supporting OEMs and integrators as well." The board, with the dual processors and no DRAM, starts at $4,675.

The following, quoted from the company announcement, describes the board's capabilities:

"The new SHB supports up to two 3.6GHz Xeon processors and features the Intel E7520 chipset, an 800MHz system bus, dual channel DDR2-400 memory interfaces, dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, dual Serial ATA/150 ports, dual USB 2.0 ports with two additional USB 2.0 interfaces and an advanced Ultra XGA video port. It supports PCIe, PCI-X and PCI add-in cards, and provides quad USB ports, on-board video and other standard IO features."

Just to educate myself a little, I did some research and learned that PCI Express, originally called Third-Generation I/O (3GIO), is meant to speed up signal transfer to keep up with today's faster processors. PCI Express can support Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GigE) transfer, making this (I assume) an important technology for voice and video transfer. The Computer Desktop Encyclopedia says PCI Express is designed as "a parallel interface of independently controlled serial links," or "lanes," up to 32 of them, each of which is "made up of two differential wire pairs that provide 2.5 Gbits/sec in each direction."

AB -- 2/22/06

AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson released an interesting article today, "Skype Use May Make Eavesdropping Passe." At first glance you might think the message is that Skype's encryption makes it impossible for government to monitor Skype calls.

But the article does make the point that, even though Skype calls are encrypted, it is still possible for an eavesdropper to tell who is calling whom and whether the two parties are using voice, text or video.

The article quotes security expert Bruce Schneier: "What you and I are saying is much less important than the fact that you and I are talking. Against traffic analysis, encryption is irrelevant."

Svensson's article says that Skype's encryption "would stymie the kind of broad eavesdropping that the National Security Agency is reputed to be performing, in which it scans thousands or millions of calls at a time for certain phrases. Even a weakly encrypted call would force an eavesdropper to spend hours of computer time cracking it."

This latter statement does suggest that Skype calling could constitute a significant security risk. The article quotes Skype's security chief as saying that Skype cooperates with "all lawful requests from relevant authorities."

AB -- 2/16/06