VoIP Advances And Trends For 2004

gardel writes "So everyone's top-tech predictions for 2004 says it will be the year of VoIP. What does that really mean? This may narrow it down. Here's Voxilla's list of the top-10 advances and trends in the world of VoIP. On the list: VoIP and cellular converges, IP phones take over, Chinese and Mexican phone numbers come to the U.S., Asterisk hits it big. What would you add?"

Comments

Monopoly

[sparklingfruit]

Just because VoIP involves voice, that does NOT mean it's the same as telephone service. The monopolistic nature of telephone service (only one company can realistically have lines in a given area, particularly in the "last mile") makes heavy regulation and regulatory fees necessary. VoIP does not suffer from this physical limitation to competition, and thus any number of VoIP providers can exist in any area. This is yet another blatant attempt of government to cash in on an emerging technology.

Re:Monopoly

[cgranade]

Not exactly. Consider that VoIP requires, by nessesity, an IP network such as the Internet. Currently, this IP network exists in most homes by one of several methods: dial-up, cable or DSL. In two of those three cases, it is the POTS provider (telco) that enables VoIP, and in the third, it's a cable provider. In all of these cases, the IP provider has a natural monopoly. Thus, while the VoIP service itself may not be a natural monopoly, the prerequisites generally are.

Asterisk

[seanadams.com]

I am currently setting up an asterisk PBX with polycom ip phones and VOIP for outgoing calls. It is incredible software. I have no doubt that in the next year or two, it will become one of the most important open source projects, right up there with Linux and Apache.

The software does have a steep learning curve (not worse that any other telco system though). Be prepared to spend a few weeks just getting a basic system with a couple of phones to go. However, once you get it up and going, it is very easy (and cheap!) to expand.

Asterisk will totally replace the current PBX and key systems, and it will also play a key role in destroying the traditional overpriced channelized telco services.

Re:Asterisk

[muonzoo]

Yes, BUT; Asterisk has some growing up to do. It isn't a standards BASED system. Sure, it implements standards, but the SIP support was ad-hoc and an afterthought. I'm not trying to take away from the amazing accomplishments on this project, however before it storms the masses, it's going to have to speak SIP at the expected interoperable level that we all expact from Apache and HTTP. Imagine if you could only view Apache pages in Mozilla, or, that images wouldn't work in IE, only Mozilla. These are real problems. Once Asterisk has that level of interoperability with OTHER IP based voice systems, it will be posed to really clean up. Exciting indeed, but some time will have to pass first.

Phone numbers are for sissies

[BritGeek]

I've never personally understood this mania that the POTS folks have for dragging all of the old telephone system baggage into VOIP. Why on earth should we perpetuate the same old nonsense of "area codes" & "country codes"? (They are completely artificial & capricious anyway.) What's wrong with dialing someone by their IP address, that's what I want to know?

who cares about privacy

[segment]

Will VoIP be Wiretap Ready?

"according to FCC filings, FBI officials had a more private meeting with half-a-dozen FCC staffers to reiterated the Bureau's view on the matter: VoIP should be regulated-- at least enough to ensure that the FBI can listen-in."

Re:Voxilla = gardel

[gardel]

Thanks for the advice. And, in the future, I will do just that. But I do feel the need to point out that, in the story submission form, there is a field for "your home page", where I did enter voxilla.com. I made no effort to cloak my association with Voxilla. In the past, I have communicated with slashdot editors who know exactly what my role with the site is.

It's really an honor to have slashdotters read the content we put together on Voxilla. We work hard on the site and think there is useful material there that can't be found elsewhere. And so we have, a few times, pointed out a story we felt may be of particular interest to slashdot. At no time did we do so anonymously and, all of my posts here, make my association with Voxilla known.

If anyone was offended, I sincerely apologize and assure you that there was no intentional action taken to mislead anyone.

The future of voip

[Aens]

As someone who works in this industry, I thought I'd share some of the future of telecomm for those who aren't 'in the know'. All communication lines going to any endpoint (home, business, sensors, etc) are quickly moving to an IP based data network. Unfortunately, there are two problems that governments and current telephone companies face:
1) Roughly 50% of their voice revenue stream comes from per minute connection charges, other carrier access charges, & regulation charges (govn't). These will evaporate when subscribers move to data driven VoIP (ie: you pay a flat fee for DSL or cable modem bandwidth now, and it can run all your voice calls to anywhere in the world). Eventually the PSTN connection part will no longer be necessary, so Vonage will disappear as we know it today, but it has finally woken up the telcos to what the future will bring.
2) Pretty much the other half of their revenue stream comes from the 'premium' voice feature services (call waiting, text messaging, etc), all of which are quickly moving from the class 5 switch into the phones themselves (aka: free).

What do you do when your primary revenue stream evaporates? Fight it in the courts or with govn't officials. Remember, govn'ts have been taking a nice chunk of that revenue for themselves as well.

We will have to move to a bandwidth & quality of service (QoS) based payment style. A minimum bandwidth is given for a flat rate (which will include -all- voice), and extra bandwidth will be provided on demand at an agreed QoS. The higher the bandwidth & QoS, the higher the fee.

Things to watch out for: VoIP everywhere, SIP phones/services, VoWLAN, current voice carriers moving their infrastructure to their IP networks, and govn't regulations dictating that comm lines (called data services & unregulated) become regulated for QoS.

The companies that move to this model last will not survive. They aren't going to like this. :-)