NewMariner
join:2005-06-24
| reply to AnonShawUser
Re: Evolution of the VoIP market?
said by AnonShawUser  :I can't help but wonder if the seeming crumble of the VoIP market might just be due to standard issue market demand. If a company isn't making a profit, it can't stay in business. So, they need to find a way to make a profit. This would mean they need to get more subscribers. In a saturated market, such as VoIP has become over the past few years(I actually remember having a conversation with someone who said VoIP would never become popular at all. Especially not when standard land lines are available), it might be that everything just needs to shift and larger companies move in to grow. Those who can adapt, do. Those who cannot, die. But for a company to jumpstart voip, it would have to be a dedicated company that offers internet and voip. They also would have to be large enough to compete with the Cablecos and Telcos. The only company that is really in a position to do this is the CableCos, yet the dont have a foothold enough in the voip market to bring voip mainstream. Then theres the little problem of emergency situations where you cant dial out if you have no electricity.
I like the idea of voip, however it just hasnt exceeded a basic pots line. Most people(I say MOST People in terms of the Nation not the dslreports.com membership as they are not in the majority like they think they are,) want a cheap dependable service. You wont find many of the 300 million people in the country that even knows what VOIP is.. |
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AnonShawUser
join:2006-06-17
Calgary, AB
| I love the idea of VoIP.. I just think what they need to do, is make it something classic phone service can't offer.
Make it cheap and cut down.. or make it more fleshed out. Standard phone service has been limited in what it can do, for a really long time. Now that we're dealing with digital communication over broadband, how about making better use of that, with add-on features that you can't get on regular phone service? |
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PolarBear
The bear formerly known as aaron8301
join:2005-01-03
Riverside, WA
 ·CableOne
| Have you EVER looked at the Vonage web site? It does a dozen things that traditional POTS has never and will never do.
Vonage Features that you can't get with POTS:
Enhanced Call Forwarding with SimulRing, that will ring up to 5 other numbers in addition to your Vonage number
VoicemailPlus that will Email you a .wav attachment of your voicemail.
Click to Call, so you can make phone calls by simply clicking on a number on your computer.
FREE calling to the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, England, Ireland, France, Italy, and Spain.
Call Transfer so you can transfer an incoming call to any other number.
The ability to take your number and service with you anywhere in the world where there is a broadband internet connection without having to do anything to have your service transferred.
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A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any other invention, with the possible exceptions of handguns and Tequilla. -- Mitch Ratcliffe |
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La Luna
Surviving Ashraful
Premium
join:2001-07-12
Warwick, NY
clubs:
·Optimum Online
 ·Vonage
| said by PolarBear :....The ability to take your number and service with you anywhere in the world where there is a broadband internet connection without having to do anything to have your service transferred. That is one of the best, if not THE best feature of Vonage. I've moved twice in the last three years since getting Vonage and I just took my adapter, got my cable hooked up, plugged the adapter in, and bingo, up and running with my same phone number.
Try doing that with a "landline".
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~~"As long as America is an infidel enemy, terrorizing it is a duty." Sayed Imam Abdul-Aziz el-Sheriff~~
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PolarBear
The bear formerly known as aaron8301
join:2005-01-03
Riverside, WA | I think transferring your service is by far the biggest pain in the @$$ with POTS. Bundle that with the fact that you can only retain your number if you stay in the same city/local area, and you might as well either never move or switch to VoIP. |
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morbo
Complete Your Transaction
join:2002-01-22
00000
clubs: | yes, telco loves bundling.  |
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AnonShawUser
join:2006-06-17
Calgary, AB
| reply to PolarBear
Alright, you have a point there.
But I was thinking something a touch more.. well, beyond the box. We have all this bandwidth, we have all this near-infinitely cheap computing power, and we're still just yacking on the phone, the same way we always have.
Back when I was in 3rd grade, I went on a field trip and they showed us something I thought was really nifty: a video phone. It was the first time I had ever seen one, and I'll have to admit: it blew me away.
Now, why is it we don't have these as one of the "standard" upgrades, on phone lines today? As it is, a huge number of national-based phone companies are already routing their wide area phone networks through the internet, to cut down on international expenses. So, with VoIP, let's make it a full-on multimedia thing. Cheap, effective teleconferencing. Having a 5-way call with friends or family, but also have a video display from their end, if they have it, without having to be locked exclusively at a computer terminal. |
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morbo
Complete Your Transaction
join:2002-01-22
00000
clubs: | that would be nice. let's do that. |
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Goober
join:2000-12-17
Naperville, IL
·WOW Internet and C..
·Comcast
| reply to PolarBear
said by PolarBear :Have you EVER looked at the Vonage web site? It does a dozen things that traditional POTS has never and will never do. Vonage Features that you can't get with POTS:Enhanced Call Forwarding with SimulRing, that will ring up to 5 other numbers in addition to your Vonage number VoicemailPlus that will Email you a .wav attachment of your voicemail. Click to Call, so you can make phone calls by simply clicking on a number on your computer. FREE calling to the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, England, Ireland, France, Italy, and Spain. Call Transfer so you can transfer an incoming call to any other number. The ability to take your number and service with you anywhere in the world where there is a broadband internet connection without having to do anything to have your service transferred. But, it doesn't have the equivalent of att's Privacy Manager. Heck, Callvantage doesn't even have it and att owns it. |
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AnonShawUser
join:2006-06-17
Calgary, AB | Makes me hope Google does win out and does something like introducing an "open" wireless VoIP network, where you can actually add your own features and make your own plan however you want it.
Too bad that's not too likely to ever happen. |
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