Download Squad

If you happened to be in the offices of Vonage, Packet8, SunRocket, or any other VoIP provider today, you most likely were witness to some high-fives and knuckle-taps by their top executives. The reason for that is that the FCC has ruled/declared/said that VoIP providers should be treated the same as your friendly neighborhood telecom which, according to one FCC honcho, means that VoIP-ers will be able to get access to the local phone company's lines, especially those designated for long distance.

What does this all mean? Really not a whole lot at this point, but the fact that the FCC says that VoIP providers should be treated the same as other telecoms may induce more consumers to jump ship from their local phone provider and go VoIP. Chairman Kevin Martin says this will increase competition when it comes to the phone service market. However, we'll have to see a greater increase in consumers opting for broadband internet access before this decision will have some real impact to it.

With the growing number of home offices popping up, especially with company employees having the opportunity to telecommute, VoIP seems to be gaining popularity with these folks who want to be able to use their home phones to conduct business without driving up their phone bills.

A new research study from IDC indicates that home offices of both types previously cited will sign up for VoIP service in the next year up to two or three times more than the average household. Of course, the primary reason for this is that those who do work from home are seeking cost savings on all levels, and if they can cut their regular phone bills in half, then VoIP has already developed a growing niche market.

In addition, the home-office worker who doesn't necessarily always work at home will want to be able to make calls while on the go, so IDC concludes that VoIP handsets will certainly experience a growth spurt as well.

A new research study indicates that more vendors are getting into the VoIP game, which means greater choice for consumers.

Telephia reports that with 700,00 more people switching to VoIP to either complement or replace their traditional landline phone service in the second quarter of this year over the first quarter, trends indicate that more vendors will be sprouting up to offer services to consumers in the ensuing months.

Not surprisingly, Vonage has the biggest slice of the pie with 53.9 percent of the pure-play market share, but there are others who are jostling to get noticed. Verizon's Voicewing and AT&T's Callvantage each have about 5.5 percent market share, and fledgling providers such as SunRocket and Lingo are beginning to get some attention.

It goes without saying that with Vonage's marketing superiority, they will dominate the VoIP sweepstakes for the immediate future. However, as VoIP becomes more ubiquitous, that will mean more competition, and that will only benefit consumers in the end.

Just came across this very lengthy, detailed piece on what VoIP's role will be in the business sector. According to a recent survey, nearly 4 in 10 companies have installed VoIP, with another 33% planning to install it in the near future.

That's pretty impressive for this still young technology. Obviously, companies are doing it mainly to save themselves major dollars in phone bills, but a growing number of them are stating that they will be leveraging VoIP for all sorts of communications applications, including videoconferencing.

With that in mind, this story lists five specific points that businesses should be aware of before they take the VoIP plunge:

1. Inevitability--the customers as well as the competition are adopting VoIP, and it stands to reason that companies should realize the shelf-life of PBX-based telecommunications systems are nearing their end.
2. Cost--while it is true that companies will save big bucks on their phone bills once a VoIP system is in place, it's going to take a big investment to develop and deploy an effective system.
3. Deployment--configuring an enterprise VoIP system will take some doing, and will end up costing both time and money in order to do it right.
4. Security--apparently hacking into a VoIP platform is not too difficult for experienced, persistent hackers, so it goes without saying that a major investment in security is a no-brainer.
5. Usage--although most companies will be leveraging VoIP for calls at the outset, other applications including data sharing, tele- and videoconferencing, and e-mail will become standard parts of a typical enterprise VoIP platform.

Obviously, we've only scratched the service here, so the linked story is definitely worth a long look.

You know, there may be something to this VoIP thing after all. According to a new report from IDC, the number of VoIP subscribers in the U.S. will quadruple by 2010. In other words, the number of current subscribers which totals a little over 10 million will grow to 44 million in less than four years.

What makes this so interesting is that it's not just the Vonages, TomatoVines, and Packet8s (among others) that will benefit from this boom. The report indicates that services like Skype and Gizmo (among others), which you can download from the Web very easily and in just a few minutes, will realize significant growth as well. If you have the wherewithal to download a VoIP application on your computer and have a decent headset, you're ready to roll.

The number one reason why VoIP is expected to grow so much is very simple--economics. People are beginning to understand that they can take advantage of a broadband internet connection and potentially save big bucks on their phone bills. Obviously, the technology is not perfect (if your broaband connection goes down, no phone service), but it seems that more people will be willing to put up with small incoveniences in order to save money.

What remains surprising to me is that the traditional landline providers aren't putting up more of a fight to retain their customers and keep them from switching to VoIP. When I switched to Vonage a few months back, I was almost shocked that I never got any type of communication from my phone provider (Verizon) with any incentives to keep me as a customer. Maybe they figured there weren't enough people making the switch for them to get that concerned about it.

With predicted growth as mentioned above. the landline providers may want to change their tune quickly.