Is VoIP Google's Next Frontier?

WindBourne writes "Apparently, Google is looking to some degree at VoIP. Of course, the question is whether they will support such items as Asterisk and FreeWorld or will they simply buy another company and tinker from that end."

Comments

AOL is getting into the VoIP market too

[andy1307]

AOL: You've got VoIP

Re:Quality?

[andy1307]

I have some issues with my internet service(Adelphia), not with my VoIP provider(Vonage). There's a two second delay before the conversation starts but other than that, I am generally happy with my service. I have the 15$/month plan and I never run out of minutes. I use a cell phone for long distance calls. You can set it up so that if your internet connection is down, the calls to your VoIP line get forwarded to your cell phone(or office phone if you prefer). I had a problem using a VPN connection when I had the VoIP box in front of my linksys router. You can open up the right port to fix that but i've been too lazy. I have the VoIP box behind the linksys router and it works fine.

I DO have a problem with using multiple lines. You have to plug in your phones to the VoIP box. You can fix that by cutting off the power supply coming from your LEC line.

Re:How does it work?

[Big_Al_B]

One of the many price hooks of VoIP is that the calls are cheaper because they circumvent these fees. The PSTN switch that gateways the SIP/RTP or H.323/RTP into SS7/TDM is considered the originating switch.

In some cases, the call may translate several times between IP and PSTN worlds. Any PSTN origination or terminating fee tarriffs apply to the PSTN legs only, so international call billing may occur at several legs, and be billed each leg as a local, LD or a "cheaper" international call based on which carriers originate and terminate the various legs.

Regardless, the terminating PSTN carrier will see some termination fee based on the incoming trunk type.

Re:Quality?

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

I use Vonage for my home office and the experience has been positive enough that the rest of my consulting group is converting to save on calling card costs. A couple of things to consider.

* Latency - If you're an online gamer and can consistently find several servers with low ping, then you should be good for VoIP. I dumped cable broadband due to the network latency going to hell in the late afternoon when all the kids returned home from school. With DSL this has never been a problem.

* Get a good router or build your own router - The original Vonage router (Motorola) is supposed to be in front of your home network router/switch, but I was finding it would crash frequently under heavy traffic. Tried putting the Vonage router behind a cheap home Linksys (later Netgear) router and still had to perform daily resets. Finally purchased a used Netopia R9100 and it's been excellent.

You can also try building your own router using one of the Linux router distros. They have bandwidth shaping utilities that can prevent connected clients from sucking all the bandwidth. Great if your kids like to run P2P.

Re:Quality?

[grasshoppa]

Using an Avaya VOIP system at my office and remote sites (over vpn) i have to say its good to great quality. cant tell that the user is on an IP or a normal digital set.

Side note, off topic: Avaya RAPES people when they want to go VoIP. I got a quote for ~100g for my office setup which prompted me to go with asterisk. At the end of the day, it was 15g, with redudant servers with good hardware. If a server dies, the voip services can be transfered in a few minutes. I'm working right now to learn how to switch them transparently.