Telephony as easy is Skype and IP

I can remember over 15 years ago, I tried out a product, CuSeeMe which touted the ability to make use of the microphone and speakers of my PC. The quality of this first generation product was spotty, but it was a sliver of what was to come. All this innovation to extend the PC beyond word processing and video games was amazing. But converting people from dial up to broadband was going to take a while. Meanwhile, mobile networks were being built out and the quality was getting better, fast! P2P communication using things like text and instant messaging were exploding and the feeling of the world getting smaller has had a profound effect on people and business. The last time I thought about paying long distance fees to call New York from San Francisco was well over 15 years ago, when I had to remember my phone card and corresponding access number. Now using my mobile phone or Skype makes it convenient and cheap.

Funny to see that as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) has reached a certain level of maturity, products such as a cordless Skype phone comes to fruition. I was at the Sharper Image the other day to see what nifty consumer gadgets are out and noticed an offering for what appears to be an adaption of a mobile phone, but this connects to your PC and Skype account via USB. The phone essentially looks like an old Nokia handset selling for about $30 USD and takes advantage of Skype by trying to give the user the feel of using a more phone-like interface for voice, rather than talking to your monitor or using a headset. Logitech has gone one step further and offered a cordless version of a Skype phone. Now you don’t even need to be tethered to your PC and can wander around.

A prediction of VoIP replacing POTS (plain old telephone service) is not a matter of if, but more about when. One such indictation is the fact that more and more people are living in places, where their mobile phone is their primary voice line. And with such choices as a Skype client on a mobile phone or getting a Skype In number, VoIP will get the hockey stick adoption is has been desparately needing. The flip side is that while it allows calls on the cheap, most people who have used it also complain about quality and dropped calls. Even with mobile phones, service degradation still occurs with ire and angst from users to follow.So with all this convenience, and the leap of faith, we now need to revisit the networks that we are relying on more and more and question QoS (quality of service) as well as understanding SLAs (service level agreements). Customers demand 99.999% and service providers must deliver. In the supply chain, technology vendors must also do their part of provide solutions that don’t necessarily through features at us and compromise availability, reliability, and scaleability.

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