Weeding The VoIP Garden

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is fast becoming the way for the world to communicate and the VoIP market jungle is full of weeds wanting to become trees.

VoIP has been around for the public market since 2002 and you can only find about a handful of stand alone VoIP service providers. Vonage who is the king of marketing still clings to its “Woo Hoo” song and their ever rising marketing costs and lower profits. Packet8, the old pioneer of Internet phone service, is chugging away while building up consumer confidence and new innovative VoIP products. We see Lingo, who likes to push their International calling plans, struggling to regain ground on the rest of field, and the new kid in the garden, SunRocket, who brings their trusty Bottom-Line pricing along for the new growth of VoIP. These and a few other companies are around for the long haul.

It is important in these early growth stages to weed out those who are trying to choke out the main growth. These are VoIP providers who are only in for the early money grabbing glory days and will die off when the heat starts to beat down on them.

If you are looking for a new VoIP service provider you need to take a few hours and weed out the jungle. You can check out the online VoIP news reports for their achievements and future plans, find and study the VoIP forums. Internet phone providers who have little or no news at all are mainly the ones that will die out. You’ll find that the strong growing VoIP companies are bringing new and improve products and services to the field everyday. Researching like this can be tough going and very time consuming.

Another option is to locate an independent VoIP, broadband or telecommunication consultant who is consistently researching and learning about the new VoIP services and products offered. These consultants are not being paid by just one provider or company to sell only their products. They are able to give you unbiased advice concerning the services you are considering. They can tell you the pros and cons of each individual provider even for those who they don’t represent.

Using an independent telecom consultant will ease the pain and time in finding that right VoIP or broadband phone provider especially in this weed choked Internet phone garden. An independent consultant will be able to inform you of what all of the top VoIP providers are doing with new services, products and future plans for the leading VoIP solutions.

Accents and Voice Recognition Software

Transfer technologies from United States of America military, DARPA and those companies funded by In-Q-Tel have brought us a long way into computer age. In fact you may not realize this however, the Internet was not invented by Al Gore. It was invented by ARPA, which is the predecessor to DARPA. In other words the reason we have this great tool called the Internet is because it was funded and invented by a group working with United States military.

Currently the United States military and the IT specialists that the United States military contracts with is working on specialty voice recognition software to intercept foreign communications. The software is getting so good that the voice recognition software can pick up dialects and search accents in various regions throughout anywhere in the world.

This is good news because this means the future of voice recognition software will include software that will allow you to use voice recognition in your daily life without making errors. Consider writing and or emailing a friend on the Internet or talking to a friend in a chat room or posting on Internet forum or blog.

This voice recognition software of the future will pick out the accents flawlessly without any pre-training of the individual using the equipment or software. In other words it will be 100 percent perfect right out of the box. Consider all this in 2006.

Why You Should Consider Switching To A Broadband Phone

Are you fed up with traditional telephone service and being at the mercy of the companies who constantly increase the rates on long distance, as well as local phone privileges? It may be time to find a different way to place a call to your family and friends. Broadband phone service is an increasingly appealing concept replacing the common telephone company services of Sprint and AT&T. Also known as VoIP or Voice Over Internet Protocol, broadband phones are another way of referring to an Internet phone.

How an Internet Phone Works

When speaking on an Internet phone, your voice is transformed into a digital signal, which travels across the World Wide Web in packets before it reaches whomever you are speaking to. These packets of data are converted into an analog signal before the person on the other end hears what you are saying. A broadband phone isn’t much different from a regular phone. You won’t be using any exotic, high tech receivers and you don’t have to change all of the phone jacks in your home. To place a call over broadband technology, all you have to do is pick up the receiver, dial a number and wait for someone to answer on the other line. You can also benefit from the same services you have grown to love, such as caller ID, call waiting and voicemail options.

Long Distance Calls

One of the main reasons people are making the switch to broadband telephone services is because the cost to place a long distance call is quite impressive. Most Internet phone services offer a flat rate that allows unlimited calls throughout the month. These calls can be placed to anywhere in the U.S., as well as Canada. Some companies also offer reasonably priced international calling plans.

Broadband Phone Service Providers

You will find a variety of Internet phone service companies springing up to pick up the pieces of unsatisfied traditional phone company customers. Local cable providers are also taking advantage of this service by offering digital phone access through some of their service packages.

Requirements

In order to enjoy a broadband phone service, a high speed Internet connection is needed. This can be accomplished through cable or DSL access.

A Few Disadvantages

Since your phone service will be provided through the Internet, this means that during thunderstorms and power outages, you run the risk of losing your telephone access. When the power gives out, so does your phone service because it is connected through your computer. This also means that if an emergency should arise during this time, you will not have a way to communicate to the outside world, by phone that is. Also, 911 access is not available for all broadband phone users.

VOIP Software Guide 101

Planning to go to a telephone booth or buy a card to make a long distance call but hesitant to spend so much money! Now scrap off your worries and adopt the VOIP service. VOIP is the commonly known abbreviation of Voice Over Internet Protocol. VOIP enables you to make calls worldwide via your Internet connection. Basically VOIP is a category of software and hardware that uses an Internet connection to pass voice data in packets using IP (internet protocol) in place of regular public switched telephone network.

There are many Internet telephony applications available such as Dialpad, CoolTalk, NetMeeting etc. Usually most of these applications are coupled with some popular Web browsers while others are stand-alone products.

The advent of VOIP and its surging popularity has led to depreciation in the costs of conventional telecommunications systems. Now you don’t have to pay for separately for your local charges but only your Internet rent. All you have to do is to say hello to Voice-over-IP and make use of the remarkable technology with which data and speech are transferred simultaneously and for which a separate telephone cable connection is not needed. This will save upto 80% of the amount you spend in making foreign calls through the standard way.

At present VOIP service is offered by leading providers such as Vonage, Lingo and Skype. Lingo is an ideal option to make international calls especially to Europe and Asia. Lingo is also commendable choice when you tend to move out of US because then you can carry your US number and call at US local rates from anywhere in the world. In comparison to Skype and Vonage, Lingo is cheap in cost.

Skype is perfect to use when you and your computer are inseparable and you have friends and family who use the same technique. Skype is deemed to be the best voice portal these days. Skype allows free calls to other Internet phone users while calls to regular phones and mobile phones are to be made at per minute fee. Skype also offers certain other add-on plans.

Out of these Vonage is the best provider of commercial and residential VOIP telephony. Vonage is different from Skype and other IM-based VOIP services for it offers a myriad of options to choose and many other uncommon features.

However at the end of the day you should opt for VOIP software that goes with your broadband connection. So before downloading any VOIP software do some research over the bandwidth the service requires, and then ensure that your internet service provider is able to match up with that.

Moreover you may not be able to avail excellent VOIP service if you are using a dial-up connection for with breaking connection, the clarity of voice and consistency in the call may also break.

Weeding The VoIP Garden

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is fast becoming the way for the world to communicate and the VoIP market jungle is full of weeds wanting to become trees.

VoIP has been around for the public market since 2002 and you can only find about a handful of stand alone VoIP service providers. Vonage who is the king of marketing still clings to its “Woo Hoo” song and their ever rising marketing costs and lower profits. Packet8, the old pioneer of Internet phone service, is chugging away while building up consumer confidence and new innovative VoIP products. We see Lingo, who likes to push their International calling plans, struggling to regain ground on the rest of field, and the new kid in the garden, SunRocket, who brings their trusty Bottom-Line pricing along for the new growth of VoIP. These and a few other companies are around for the long haul.

It is important in these early growth stages to weed out those who are trying to choke out the main growth. These are VoIP providers who are only in for the early money grabbing glory days and will die off when the heat starts to beat down on them.

If you are looking for a new VoIP service provider you need to take a few hours and weed out the jungle. You can check out the online VoIP news reports for their achievements and future plans, find and study the VoIP forums. Internet phone providers who have little or no news at all are mainly the ones that will die out. You’ll find that the strong growing VoIP companies are bringing new and improve products and services to the field everyday. Researching like this can be tough going and very time consuming.

Another option is to locate an independent VoIP, broadband or telecommunication consultant who is consistently researching and learning about the new VoIP services and products offered. These consultants are not being paid by just one provider or company to sell only their products. They are able to give you unbiased advice concerning the services you are considering. They can tell you the pros and cons of each individual provider even for those who they don’t represent.

Using an independent telecom consultant will ease the pain and time in finding that right VoIP or broadband phone provider especially in this weed choked Internet phone garden. An independent consultant will be able to inform you of what all of the top VoIP providers are doing with new services, products and future plans for the leading VoIP solutions. The great thing is you get all of your information in a few minutes and its free (Do Not Pay For Consulting).

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VoIP in Canada – Marketing by The Majors

Voice Over IP is a leading-edge technology that is highly touted by industry experts as the future of telecommunications . Analysts believe that a shift away from traditional telephone lines to a fully digital, broadband service is inevitable, and indeed, while the major telecom companies in Canada offer the products, as we approach the end of 2006, some of them are doing anything but trumpeting the new technology.

A quick online perusal of the Canadian cable providers information will reveal that they are doing their very best to keep the difference between the traditional service and the broadband technology as quiet as possible. Even though the cable providers are in an ideal position to capitalize on the fact that they already have the technology to handle data calls, ‘don’t worry!’ appears to be the message, ‘nothing will change if you switch to the digital service’. And while that might sound good to some people, a small ‘bundling discount’ alone hardly seems enough to make consumers want to make the jump from analog service.

Rogers takes pains to distance itself from any association with VoIP. A comprehensive search of their website turns up only one mention of Voice over IP, and then only in the context of how their broadband service is NOT VoIP. Strictly speaking, that may be true; Rogers has a private broadband network that has been delivering their cable TV service for years, and by using that existing network, they avoid using the public internet and the sometimes negative connotations that can be associated therein. But VoIP can be defined as phone calls delivered via ANY data network, not necessarily the public internet, and if that’s the case, Rogers Digital Home Phone Service is indeed VoIP.

For Western Canadians, Shaw Cable is the Rogers of the region. Shaw has been supplying the cable service almost exclusively for some time, and they have, like Rogers, recently begun to offer a digital alternative to the phone service that has traditionally been the domain of Telus. Shaw goes a little further than Rogers and makes a more vigorous attempt to dissuade consumers from choosing what they call ‘best-effect’ VoIP, and qualify their own VoIP service as ‘Managed IP Telephony’. It’s an interesting strategy; on the one hand they tout the benefits of the data network, while at the same time distance themselves from the possible limitations of the un-managed internet. And most strikingly, with a reference to the Enhanced 911 question that many VoIP companies are dealing with, Shaw ultimately claims that their IP telephone service won’t “compromise personal safety”.

The only of the major telecommunications companies in Canada that actually seems to embrace VoIP is, ironically, Bell Canada. In addition to the traditional Home Phone service that Bell has offered forever and that VoIP acts as an alternative to, Bell now sells what they call ‘Digital Voice’ and ‘Digital Voice Lite’. These services are clearly advertised as VoIP, and unlike the Cable providers, Bell actually proclaims that VoIP is “the future of telecommunications”. They tout its “reliability” and “innovative calling features”, and profess VoIP’s “simplicity and convenience”. Unfortunately, starting at $34 per month, the pricing is not as competitive as some of the other offerings in the market.

So while the Cable companies are slow to associate with VoIP, in name at least, it’s encouraging to see that at least one of the major Canadian players is embracing the technology, and spirit, of what’s surely to be the standard for the future.

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Unique Ways To Buy Wholesale Prepaid Phone Cards Online From Distributors

The calling card business has changed dramatically over the last year. In the past, it was a crazy skeptical business that had tons of wholesale phone card businesses open overnight, only to disappear the next day. Today, the number of illegitimate card operators have been thinned out, and there are more serious companies who are in the business to legitimately sell phone services, rather than to take consumers’ money and shut the doors. Distributing cards for a legitimate company represents a large revenue opportunity.

There are some excellent niche markets for this industry such as cruise ships, commercial vessels, international associations that need wholesale calling cards in bulk to provide to their customers, employees or members, especially for international calling. with flexible, virtual, easy to use quality clean calling card solutions.

Discount phone card distributors provide a great service for legitimate phone card providers. But there not a match for every wholesale phone card buyer. If you search around online, you will be able to network with a strong partner. Some companies offer bill at sale which will let you carry no inventory cost to allow your calling card business to expand your telecom product line without the extra asset cost and risk Point of Sale Activation offers a great way to be flexible in the every changing competitive market.

The largest opportunity actually exists outside of traditional retail channels. If you sell to or need to provide phone cards outside of a retail location, there are several options worth exploring. You can find partners that will provide you with free trial phone cards to distribute as to help build their name and let your customers test the quality of the calls before putting a larger amount of money to recharge phone cards. Handing these to your customers can be a great value-add for your service or product. Many of them will even allow you to co-brand these trial cards, providing you with free advertising for your own brand at the same time. You can even find partners that have amazing unique offers such as special discounts, contest, free movie passes or free restaurant gift certificates.

These are generally offered by companies that provide quality service and great rates. They are willing to offer extra bonuses, since they are confident that once a consumer tries their calling service, they will most likely recharge and continue to use their product. These wholesale phone card providers are using there strength in customer retention to offer an amazing phone card offers to attract new users. Some phone card companies may pay you as an affiliate with a small 5% commission. But if it’s a quality wholesale phone card provider online, they can pay you 80% to 150% of the sale to acquire a new customer to maximize your profit with no risk. Now is the time to do your research to find a firm that will provide extra value to your customers while maximizing your profit with minimal out of pocket expenses

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Lower Videophone Prices Allow Individuals Accessibility

VoIP service providers are now offering videophone at the lowest price we’ve seen on the VoIP service market. The tremendous drop in prices will see more individuals and SMB’s investing in this affordable futuristic way of communicating.

VoIP services are fast becoming the way to communicate worldwide and with the recent drop in videophone and service plan prices many individuals will be able to get a taste of the future at cost-effective prices. Today’s videophone offers more clarity than ever before and at a lower cost.

The videophone has become popular for conferencing with geographically challenged offices in real-time and for lawyer firms in taking depositions. I expect to see more videophones in offices in the next few months and individuals adding videophones as a practical conversational communication option to there current telcom arsenal.

Watch for the VoIP service field to grow in great leaps and bounds in the next year along with more important features being established such as emergency 911 and 411 services. The last few weeks have seen the FCC take a closer look at the VoIP industry, along with other consumer groups which is a plus for consumers. Consumers should see the lower level providers fade away and the tier 1 VoIP providers battle it out for the best technology and lowest price plans. Some providers have already added a Regulatory Recovery Fee to cover the cost of the new obligations being imposed on the VoIP providers, but, don’t expect prices to go up much. VoIP services are still the most economical way of communicating today.

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Bluetooth Computer Headsets – Enjoy Wireless Freedom

Wireless Computer Headsets

Till recently, few options were available to people interested in using cordless headsets with their computers. Dedicated wireless Headsets are available, however they often cost upwards of $200 US puttititle="Bluetooth Computer Headsets"ng them out of reach of the average user.

Bluetooth Headsets

Cellular telephone users have long embraced the benefits of Bluetooth Technology for use with their handsets. One of the more popular Bluetooth devices available to Cell phone users are Bluetooth Headsets. Although Bluetooth Headsets were initially quite expensive, the average price has dropped considerably in recent years bringing them within reach of millions of people.

Aside from using Bluetooth Headsets with Cellular Telephones, Bluetooth Headsets can be used just as effectively with computers. All one needs to do is make their computer ‘Bluetooth Enabled’ and the procedures involved in using the Bluetooth Headset with a computer compare with those used for cellular telephones.

Bluetooth Computer Headsets

There are literally hundreds of different Cellular Telephone Bluetooth Headsets available on the market. Any of these Headsets will work with your computer however end-users are anxiously awaiting the introduction of dedicated Bluetooth Computer Headsets. Although they haven’t hit the market at time of writing, rumours and press releases hint at the imminent arrival of dedicated Bluetooth Computer Headsets.

Price

Initially, one can anticipate that Bluetooth Computer Headsets will be relatively expensive when compared to their ‘corded’ couterparts. However, as with most computer-related hardware, the price should drop once additional manufacturers release Bluetooth Computer Headsets and competition thrives.

Logically, one could also anticipate that Bluetooth Computer Headsets will be less expensive to manufacture than their cellular telephone headset counterparts due primarily to the fact that a far lesser degree of miniturization will be required. Whereas cellular telephone Bluetooth Headsets are designed to be portable, Bluetooth Computer Headsets will likely be designed primarily for comfort, audio quality and range. Lesser miniturization generally results in lower manufacturing costs which hopefully will be passed on to the consumer.

Expectations

So what can one expect from a Bluetooth Computer Headset? Ideally they’ll be light-weight, comfortable, incorporate an integrated boom microphone, be capable of stereo sound and above all, be realistically priced. Furthermore, Bluetooth Computer Headsets should be simple to install/use and boast an operating range that encompasses the average user’s home or office.

Provided these basic requirements are met, Bluetooth Computer Headsets should prove extremely popular once released and we await their arrival with eager anticipation

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The FCC Unanimously Approves Mandatory 911 for VoIP Service

The Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved a 10-page measure that will require Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers to provide a reliable 911 system to their customers. The measure will also require that state and local governments to levy taxes on VoIP service providers in exchange for providing access to 911 dispatchers. Internet phone providers have 120 days to improve the current 911 situations.

The new FCC Chairman, Kevin Martin stated, “The requirement to provide access to 911 is about public safety. Because the commission previously found that the VoIP services at issue were interstate, the commission assumed the responsibility to ensure that basic public safety requirements are implemented and satisfied.”

Currently VoIP service users who dial 911 run into many problems such as being redirected to administrative offices instead of a dispatcher. Also, when calls are received by dispatchers contact information for the caller such as the telephone number and location of the caller is not provided with the current VoIP 911 system. The lack of a reliable 911 system has brought several lawsuits against VoIP providers.

Sen. Conrad Burn, a sponsor of the bill made the comment, “The few seconds it takes someone to realize that their broadband connection cannot reach 911 can be the difference between life and death, and we cannot waste that time during an emergency.”

VoIP providers are being required to update and inform all customers, both new and old, of the limitations and problems that can come with calling 911 from a VoIP phone. The measure will require that 911 dispatchers must receive all calls to 911 and that the calls are accompanied by the caller’s information and location.

“Anyone who dials 911 has a reasonable expectation that he or she will be connected to an emergency operator. This expectation exists whether that person is dialing 911 from a traditional wire line phone, a wireless phone or a VoIP phone,” states Martin, “Today, we take this action to ensure this expectation is met as soon as possible.

Broadband phone service subscribers can check with their current VoIP provider for updates to their VoIP 911 plans. New updates and changes are being added to VoIP to meet the FCC’s new regulation so VoIP users are encouraged to check with their VoIP providers.

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The Best VoIP Service – Sunrocket vs. Vonage and Packet8

Sunrocket internet phone service is one of the best VoIP deals available today for those looking for quality service at an inexpensive price. Once a very small player in the broadband phone game, Sunrocket has been growing by leaps and bounds and is now considered one of the best VoIP companies. With call quality comparable to top of the line broadband phone service providers Vonage and Packet8, Sunrocket is the leader when it comes to price.

Currently at $199 per year for unlimited local and long distance calling, Sunrocket will save you $100 a year compared to Vonage’s annual price of $299.88. Annual savings over Packet8′s 12 month price of $239.88 is around $40. With call quality being about equal among these three VoIP providers, if you’re looking for cheap unlimited local and long distance domestic phone service without a lot of extra bells and whistles, Sunrocket is the way to go.

Comparing VoIP Plans

All three providers include free Canada calling with their unlimited plans, online account management and billing, voicemail, voicemail to email, three way conference calling, call forwarding, call waiting, call return and speed dial. These basic features are pretty much standard among all VoIP service providers, and are included free. For most average telephone users who are used to land line service, these features are a nice “bonus”, as most POTS (plain old telephone service) users have to pay extra to get these enhancements.

Sun Rocket offers very low international rates, with many calling locations as low as .03 per minute. As a special promotion that has been running for some time, Sunrocket gives new subscribers a free cordless phone when they sign up via a referral.

At $24.99 per month, Vonage offers a larger set of features as well as unlimited international calling to most of Western Europe. Vonage has more enhanced features than Sunrocket, such as caller ID with name, call transfer, ring lists, international call blocking and click to call computer calling. International rates are very competitive.

For $19.99 per month, Packet8 also offers a larger set of free features with their unlimited local and long distance plan including caller ID blocking, anonymous call blocking, simultaneous ringing on multiple phone numbers, and a “find me, follow me” feature that can be set to ring different phone numbers one at a time until someone answers. Packet 8 also offers an optional video phone plan that is used with the video telephone they sell. This allows you to make videoconferencing phone calls with other video phone users. As like most VoIP providers, Packet 8 offers very competitive international rates. An unlimited international calling plan is available for an additional fee.

When comparing VoIP providers, you can see that all digital phone service plans are not created equal. If low cost is your primary goal, you make little to no international calls and you are happy with basic features, Sunrocket is a great choice. If you make frequent calls to Western Europe and want some extra features, Vonage is the option for you. If you want extra features, primarily call within the U.S. and Canada, or want to use video conferencing, Packet8 is an excellent choice.

No matter which internet phone service provider you choose, as long as you stick with a highly rated VoIP company that has a reputation for good voice quality of calls, you can’t go wrong. Broadband phone service is the future of telecommunications, and you can save a lot of money on phone bills by switching to VoIP. The only requirement is a broadband internet connection. For home or small business users, cable internet service will provide the biggest savings, as most DSL service requires a land line telephone service account.

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Will VoIP be a Mass Market Product?

A common thinking among “Marketing people ” is that for every product that enters the market there must be a path, a target, a need ( real or created) that decides how the product must enter the consumer’s life, which part of the population is more likely to go for it, which niche it is going to fill and, most important “…certain things being stated, something other than what is stated follows of necessity from their being so.” and that is the final issue: the price.

Depending on those anavoidable patterns a product is more or less ready for a certain market.

High technologically devices, the ones that offer perfect quality and cost a fortune will target the elitarian market, where the price has not big importance (on the contrary, if the price would be lower than what certain people can afford, the product wouldn’t reach them) since it means luxury.

When a product ceases to be luxury and begins to be a need, then the mass market is ready. The product can enter 60% of consumers’ lives, reach easily a good upgrade in the percentage and become ” The New Product of the year 200….”.

Let’s consider the VoIP market.

Prior to recent theoretical work on social needs, the usual purpose of a product invoked individual (social) behaviors. We now know that these assumptions are not completely wrong.

Wrong would be NON considering them.

In systems where many people are free to choose between many options, a small subset of the whole offer will get a disproportionate amount of traffic (or attention, or income), even if no one of the system actively work towards such an outcome. This has nothing to do with moral weakness, selling out, or any other psychological explanation. The very act of choosing, spread widely enough and freely enough, creates a power law distribution.

Now, thanks to a series of breakthroughs in network theory by researchers we know that power law distributions tend to arise in social systems where many people express their preferences among many options. We also know that as the number of options rise, the curve becomes more extreme. This is a counter-intuitive finding – most of us would expect a rising number of choices to flatten the curve, but in fact, increasing the size of the system increases the gap between the #1 spot and the median spot.

In other words: give to the people the choice among desktop phones and mobile phones and the majority will choose what they think more convenient, in spite of the cost of the service.

In a way the cost of the service is the only left advantage in favour of the fixed telephony.

If the price was the same the desktop phones would disappear from the life of the average consumer (mass market consumer).

To see how freedom of choice could create such unequal distributions, consider a hypothetical population of a thousand people, each picking their favorite way of telecommunication. One way to model such a system is simply to assume that each person has an equal chance of liking each kind of telephony. This distribution would be basically flat – most kind of telephony will have the same number of people listing it as a favorite. A few will be more popular than average and a few less, of course, but that will be statistical noise. The bulk of the telephony will be of average popularity, and the highs and lows will not be too far different from this average. In this model, neither the quality of the voice, the availability, the design of the device nor other people’s choices have any effect; there are no shared tastes, no preferred genres, no effects from marketing or recommendations from friends.

This is the mass market of VoIP as dreamed and forecasted by most hardware producers.

People would choose VoIP in spite of the fact that the systems are not intercommunicating, the available phones are just desktop phones, most of the population doesn’t have a “Flat rate DSL” and some do not even have a decent connection, (just one ” UP to…) and just because VoIP means cutting cost.

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Will the Bell System Survive? A Massive Transfer of Wealth from Bell to VoIP is Underway

Will the Bell System Survive? A Massive Transfer of Wealth from Bell to VoIP Is Underway.

The “Internet Revolution” has brought us e-mail, the World Wide Web and quick, convenient ways to communicate that we’ve come to take for granted. And now it’s reached consumers who are looking for a more economical, more flexible way to talk on the phone. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as Broadband Phone or Internet Phone, now allows consumers to use their ordinary telephone to talk over the Internet at rates 50 to 60 percent below those charged by the Bell System, and with robust features that Bell cannot offer.

The Bell System has been our primary “channel” for connecting with friends, relatives and business associates for the last 100 years. Yet, in July, 2004, Michael Powell, the past Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the telephone industry, made this dramatic statement: “VoIP will irreversibly alter the world of communications. VoIP is the most significant paradigm shift in the entire history of modern communications since the invention of the telephone.”

Powell was quoted in Forbes Magazine, but why did he speak about VoIP in such striking terms?

For starters, the courts have ruled that VoIP voice services over the Internet are information services, not telecommunications services. As such, VoIP is not subject to the many taxes, regulatory fees and tariffs that Federal, State and local governments have piled onto the phone company over the years. Take a look at your latest phone bill and you’ll see that 30 percent or more of the monthly charge comes from these “junk fees.” Moving to VOIP phone service eliminates them, except for a trifling 3 percent Federal Excise Tax.

Second, unlike the phone company, VoIP service providers don’t have to install and maintain central offices, millions of miles of copper wire and fiber optic cable to carry your voice from point to point. The Internet is “already there,” just waiting to send your voice as a digital packet stream alongside other digital traffic. This huge savings on infrastructure costs, plus the elimination of “junk fees” translates into a savings of 50 to 60 percent per month, every month. A typical $65 per month phone bill usually costs about $25 per month with VoIP; saving a residential customer with a single phone line nearly $500 per year. For homes with two lines, savings can approach $700 per year.

Third, VoIP delivers sophisticated new features the phone company cannot. For example, Find Me service allows you to designate up to five phones that will ring in sequence, or simultaneously, to find you when you’re out of the office. Enhanced Voicemail lets you listen to voicemail from any web-connected PC or Mac, and to forward them as email attachments to anyone who might need to hear the voicemail. A web-based Call Manager lets you build a list of contacts you can dial simply by clicking on the person’s name. These conveniences not only increase productivity for busy people; they’re fun and easy to use. And of course all the features you already use ? call waiting, caller ID, call return, etc. are included in the standard VoIP service.

These factors working together have led market research firms, including Frost & Sullivan and the Yankee Group, to predict that consumers using VoIP phone service will increase from around one million now to over 18 million by 2007. Other estimates range as high as 30 million by 2007. Losing 18 to 30 million customers in the next few years is very likely keeping conventional phone providers awake at night.

The impact of the Internet on communication is pervasive. In July, 2005, the US Congress voted overwhelmingly (410 to 20) to reform the Postal Service to save it from a “death spiral” brought on by rising costs and declining business due to the impact of the Internet. The next few years should bring more challenges to the Bell System as millions of people drop their phone service in favor of the lower cost, richer features and convenience of VoIP communication.

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Interactive Voice Response

As the user’s interaction with the database is predetermined by what the IVR system will allow the user access to, IVR technology does not require human interaction over the telephone. Example, banks and credit card companies use IVR systems because their customers can receive up-to-date account information instantly and easily without necessarily speaking to a person. IVR technology is also used to gather information, such as telephone surveys in which the user is prompted to answer questions by pushing the numbers on a touch-tone telephone.

Generally the system plays pre-recorded voice prompts to which the person presses a number on a telephone keypad to select the option chosen, or engage in simple answers such as “yes”, “no”, or numbers in answer to the voice prompts. The latest systems use natural language speech recognition to interpret the questions that the person wants answered. One of the newest trends, Guided Speech IVR, integrates live human agents into the design and workflow of the application to enable speech recognition with human context.

Other innovations include the ability to speak complex and dynamic information. Examples would be an e-mail, news report or weather information using Text-To-Speech (TTS). TTS is a computer generated synthesized speech and is no longer the robotic voice people associate with computers. Real voices are used to create the speech in tiny fragments that are glued together before the caller hears it.

IVR systems can be used to create and manage many services such as telephone banking, order placement, caller identification and routing, balance inquiry, and airline ticket booking. Voicemail systems are different from IVR systems because they are a one-way communication tool (the caller leaves a message), but IVR systems attempt two-way interaction with the caller. Automatic call distributor (ACD) systems are often the first point of contact when dealing with any larger business, and can be used in place of more expensive IVR systems. IVR systems are mainly used at the front end of call centers to identify what type of service the caller wants and to extract numeric information such as account numbers as well as provide answers to simple questions like account balances or just to allow pre-recorded information to be heard.

IVR systems are often referred to as being unhelpful and difficult to use because of the poor design and lack of appreciation of the callers’ needs. A fully functional IVR system should connect callers to their desired service promptly and with minimal flaws.

IVR call flows are created in a variety of ways. Older systems, which depended upon proprietary programming or scripting languages, and modern systems, which are structured similar to WWW pages, using the VoiceXML or SALT languages. This allows any Web server to act as an application server, enabling the developer to focus on the call flow. Developers need not require specialized programming skills, as any Web developer already have the tools needed to create an IVR call flow.

Voice Over IP Warrior

In a traditional PSTN, the quality of service of the calls and continuous connection are very dependable; so, in order for people to switch to IP telephony, the same quality considerations must be maintained or excelled. With IP telephony consisting of distributed elements, the entire architecture has to be strategically managed to provide good service while at the same time reducing the overload and maintenance costs.

Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, solutions include components such as end-user devices, PBX, gateways and gatekeepers, IP network and several protocols that take care of the issues and operations of a transaction. When a call is initiated, there are distributed arrays of routers, which manage the call functions such as identification of the destination, maintenance of the connection between the IP and PSTN, billing management, and alerts about the incoming transaction.

In this competitive VoIP market, VoIP solutions must be able to meet needs such as high-speed interface, predictable performance, quality of service and security. These factors drive application development and infrastructure deployment. The routers should be able to handle thousands of calls through increased bandwidth, and they should also match the interface speeds in order to forward the IP packets. The quality of service is maintained in the router by addressing concerns such as exact sequencing of the packets so that the call is clear and meaningful. Security features are to be implemented to prevent hackers from accessing the infrastructure. This is managed by enumerating the routers, which function as gateways and controllers as private addresses, so they are not accessed through the public Internet.

A robust infrastructure deployment is complemented by application development that adheres to various protocols that are mostly governed by International Transmission Union (ITU) and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Several protocols are available, and the necessity of the implementation depends upon the product groups. Signaling System Seven (SS7) is a protocol that manages the establishment and termination of calls. H.323 is a product-based communication protocol that signals the call to the IP network and the end user.

RTP protocols address the concerns of real-time receipt of calls so that the calls arrive in the same sequence. Media Gateway Control protocol coordinates the actions of gateways. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) handles the setup and tear down of multimedia sessions between speakers.

With a combination of infrastructure and protocol, VoIP solutions enable the customer to establish calls at a fraction of the rate of PSTN lines, while at the same time maintaining quality