Yahoo Readies New VoIP Service

Rob writes "Yahoo is readying to capture a larger piece of the VoIP market and will announce a new VoIP product during the next two weeks. The new service would be comparable to Skype Technologies SA's, said Safa Rashtchy, senior research analyst at Wall Street researcher Piper Jaffray Co, which makes a market in Yahoo stock. The impending move by Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo into the VoIP arena would potentially be disruptive."

Comments

not disruptive until cheap broadband gets here

[Cryofan]

once the larger urban areas (read 50% of America) are able to get broadband for $20-25/month, without having to pay for a mandatory phone line or cable tv along with that, THEN VOIP will be disruptive.

But as long as the vast majority cannot get cheap broadband BY ITSELF, VOIP will languish.

Here is a theory: besides wifi, the only thing that may push down rates and packages to that mentioned above is the upcoming digital Tv switchover. Broadcasting in dgital, each tv station will be able to broadcast 3 or perhaps 6 distinct channels. Thus in many urban areas, where you might have 4 to 6 channels that most people can get via rabbit ears, that might turn into 12 to 36 channels of content. Thus, broadcast tv could compete with cable tv. Thus, cable tv will lose a lot of subscribers. Thus, they will have to sell broadband cheapers. Thus the Telcos will have to sell broadband cheaper. All the telcos will be starting up their own dsl tv.

So it may be tv that pushes broadband down, not wifi.

Is it not obvious? Google did it

[mrklin]

* Yahoo! Messenger today offers VOIP via in free PC-to-PC calls via Messenger, see http://messenger.yahoo.com/feat_voice.php.

* Dialpad (http://www.dialpad.com/) was acquired by Yahoo! two months ago.

* Yahoo! has access numerous deals with top last-mile telecoms such as SBC in the US, BT in UK, Rogers in CA, etc.

My prediction: two months after Yahoo! starts to provide VOIP, Google will do so and then Slashdot will have an article annoucing that Google now offers VOIP and is the first one doing so and Yahoo! is copying Google.

Welcome to the Party

[Doc Ruby]

If they use SIP, they'll boost the whole VoIP industry, and perhaps emerge as a leader. If they roll their own incompatible protocol, like Skype did, they'll fragment the market and industry, perhaps controlling their own island, and pay the cost later when they've got some control. But that later gambit also creates demand for a SIP/Skype/Yahoo gateway. Exactly the kind of thing that OSS apps like Asterisk are better platforms for than in-house systems. Both because the OSS winds up in different hands, with different experience, each with their own priority in making their angle work - which then can all be synthesized by the project team. And because the in-house team will give shorter shrift to competing protocol features, especially as they rush to market.

For their sake, and for the sake of not wasting 2 years fragmenting and recombining the industry, I hope they've gone with SIP. But I'm not holding my breath.

No way - they're in hip deep with SBC

[Ralph Spoilsport]

Yahoo and SBC are in bed together with their DSL package - sbcglobal. SBC supplies the phone lines, Yahoo supplies the net. Subverting the bread and butter of their partner would be sheer suicide.

Ain't. Gonna. Happen.

RS