FORD: Is VoIP a Success?

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By Carl Ford
I shared with some friends the perspective that I have that VoIP is asuccess. After all, circuit switching is experiencing "end oflife" management by network operators everywhere. However, asa service, VoIP has not really delivered a crushing blow. In theregulatory world, VoIP is part of the existing telecom portfolio. No oneincludes the innovation that comes to VoIP rightfully from its ComputerTelephone Integration history when looking at the technology. Adjunctintegrations that use Voice/Web 2.0 technology to deliver dual mode services orprovide virtualization to geographic numbers are outside the scope of mostdiscussions about VoIP.
So can VoIP be considered a success?
Brough Turner of NMS Communications pointed out to me three areas ofopportunity for real change that VoIP should be part of in the network. The first is going beyond "Digital POTS." Many serviceproviders have embraced VoIP for the cost savings of integrating to their IPinfrastructure to do nothing more than replicate the PSTN. Cable operators,Vonage and others have built to match what exists--not what could be.Skype has been the best at demonstrating the potential for VoIP and has manyinteresting adjunct developments with click to dial, conferencing and Internetdevices that morph what exists to create what should be.
A second place where VoIP is not living up to its potential is in the world ofenterprise PBXs. While Microsoft is pushing for Unified Communication,the majority of the marketplace is still in a walled garden mindset where theIP-PBX vendor you buy from bundles proprietary handsets and has a closedecosystem of approved devices. Bill Miller of Digium would remind me thatAsterisk is another community where through open source the ability to connectto a variety of devices is possible.
Finally, comes the biggest opportunity. Wireless is running to embracethe Internet with broadband services, but using primarily its existingframework. University of Minnesota's Dr. AndrewOdlysko points out that IP has won as the connecting glue because of itsflexibility, adaptability to legacy networks and third party development.However, the adaptability to the legacy network is tilted toward the existinginfrastructure of the wireless architecture.
It's logical to project that wireless is a market imperative for consumers ofthe Internet. The data points for this conclusion are the iPhone ownersbeing responsible for over 80 percent of the data browsing on mobile phones andScandinavia's wideband HSPA services beingused to connect laptops.
Just like the Internet usurped the PSTN to have ubiquity and then flipped voicetraffic to the point where now almost all long distance calls are on top of theInternet, we can make the case that wireless is going to have the sameexperience. With ecosystems being built by companies like EBay/Skype, Apple and Google are buildingecosystems of developers looking to deliver something more nomadic digitalPOTS.
We should see VoIP as part of the mix with better integration ofpresence and positioning information in a signaling structure beyond SS7. Whether VoIP is thought of as a service or a function in a service should beirrelevant. VoIP's future success is everywhere.
Carl Ford is Strategic Advisor and Community Developer for FierceMarkets.His words of wisdom can be found at www.carlford.net.


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