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VoIP Predictions for 2005
phoneboy writes "There was much progress in the VoIP world in 2004, though not as much as Voxilla predicted exactly one year ago. Will 2005 accelerate the pace of change? We at Voxilla think so. In our One Look Back, Two Steps Forward article, we take a peek back at our predicitions we made in 2004 and don the swami cap as we look boldly into the near future of the phone."
eew man shoulders!
What the hell does that have to do with VoIP!?!? But yeah. I will admit it. She is hot.
I don't like to sit. Sitting is for people who like to sit.
"Prediction? ...Pain."
-Clubber Lang
About 7 years ago I invested in VocalTec (VOCL). It was the first company out of the block for VOIP and founded the IP Telephony exchange to commoditize billing across international networks. Currently, it specializes in IP packet solutions to large scale vendors. Deutche Telecom is its largest customer.
As the article said, VOIP was just around the corner to riches. Some 7 years latter the stock has plunged I'm out about $30,000. The stock remains flatlined at about $1.40/share and I'm looking to sell at a loss for tax purposes (my patience has run out).
Anyway, I suspect that if VOIP does ever gets off the ground CEO's and other corporate board types and politicans and FCC bureaucrats will siphon off any reasonable profit made by ordinary investors regardless of how large the profit. But for now, at least I am comforted in knowing that they are not getting any richer than I am through their investment in VOIP.
Prosperity may be right around the corner, as the Republican Party campaign ad said. Its just that it is probably a corner of some slum in Bagdad where someone will take an unexpected shot at you (like ie VOIP wiretapping by our new police state masters, who no doubt will make a profit by summarizing calls for sale to corporations who wish to know what kinds of products you are likely to buy so they can send VOIP spam; insiders I know say Karl Rove's gang can already tap into the conversations via Echelon of any democratic party operative in near real time regardless of the phone they are using, so I'm no longer surprised at anything in this area anymore). Its just as well the new torture directives will allow only "severe pain" rather than "excrutiating pain".
I'm not holding my breath for riches any more. I'm holding my breath due to the stink of such silly PR-type stories.