Cheap talk goes global

VoIP means software revenue

I believe the jury has rendered a verdict and voice telephony is a commodity. Mark is right on target with his assessment that part of the solution (the solution meaning how service providers are going to make customers happy and make money) are cool developments like Apple's iPhone SDK. To me the additional parts are network quality - VoIP is priced low but the public internet especially for international calls can leave something to be desired particularly for the sensitive enterprise market - and ease of deploying customized applications.

So Apple's SDK means that presentation / interface for end users of mobile applications and soon mobile VoIP applications is on the right path but who will determine which apps make it onto the iPhone and other mobile devices and how hard will it be to make them work? There needs to be a way of easily (read: low effort;low cost) creating applications that tie together the advances in interface development with advances in mashed-up telephony - I guess it'll be intelligent middleware that allows service providers to create services quickly and accurately without huge overhead so that, in the end, even those $.02 go away and end users pay flat rate for the software application that meets their needs. There are about a million Voice 2.0 companies out there each re-inventing communications software with their own appications and their own VC pot of gold. Seems inefficient.

The network - well that's another story! Its getting better all the time. I use VoIP when I travel (in France now using it) but it takes patience and a constant reminder of the associated savings - not something enterprises are too keen on tolerating.

Micah Singer
VoIP Logic

International Calling

I own a VoIP company (www.voip-na.com)we offer a global residential and business program that is only $10.00 above our US/Canada phone service that allows people to call 48 international destinations with no per minute charges. For an additional $5.95 per month you can add your cell or another landline phone and call those same detinations at no per minute charge.

We are currently launching a new series of services (Calls2-programs; www.Calls2China.com)that will allow you to call internationally to those same destination from any landline or cell phone. $9.95/500 min, $14.95/1000 min, $19.95/1500 min and $24.95/3000 min. All 48 destinations are included.

John A. Holdburg
VoIP of North America
johnh@voip-na.com