Traditional based phone services were once offered by instant messenger service providers like MSN at one point, but the quality was not up to industry standards and the service was scrapped for other projects. On the other hand, voice quality for VoIP is improving in leaps and bounds, more customers are finding themselves choosing computer based communication over the PSTN for lower fees, and better options.
Callback is a service that allows users to set-up long-distance calls via low cost VoIP technology. User first calls into a local telephone number that asks for access codes. The successful call will be captured by callback server and the call will be disconnected automatically. The server will then initiate a return call to user to ask for dialing destination number. The server will then connect the user to the destination number by a VoIP call.
The Digest ranked top VoIP providers and reported six leaders within the VoIP industry, all competing for a share of the 1.5 billion-subscriber market. These major VoIP providers are: Charter Communications, Cablevision, Time Warner, Comcast, Skype and Vonage.
VoIP is becoming a mature technology and the industry is offering many VoIP products and services with latest industry news and feeds. Fresh contents are updated everyday to keep websites and blogs updated, as well as keeping newsletters relevant and current. There are also special reports from non-profit organizations on how VoIP help to reduce non-profit expenses.
A fascinating trend is the one above, for the search term “free voip.” Unlike other popular VoIP topics, customers searching for free VoIP solutions kept steadily increasing through 2004 and 2005, leveled off in 2006 and 2007, and has only dropped slightly throughout 2008, despite a downturn in searches for VoIP phones, equipment or software. This indicates that consumer interest in free VoIP products remains a very strong potential for tapping a certain market niche where free VoIP products or service could be provided to clients, and where revenue would need to be generated in terms of advertising or with premium subscription services, much like how the online gaming industry has headed over the last few years.
The trend in VoIP software follows the same trend as VoIP phones, peaking in 2005 and dropping slowly through 2008. This term appears to be leveling off in 2008 as well. Again, the overwhelming similarity in search popularity for all search terms related to VoIP hardware and software indicates the novelty factor, but, more importantly, the constant level from spring of 2008 to winter of 2008 reflects that this drop is now leveling.
According to a 2007 article in Baseline magazine titled “Top 20 SMB Technologies and Purchasing Trends,” small businesses are focusing on purchasing technology that clearly adds value to doing business within their industry. According to the CompTIA survey cited by the article, small business purchase trends indicate that VoIP are near the top of the list of top technologies small businesses have deployed or plan to deploy within the next few years.
The VoIP industry is so broad that some components can experience growth while others could decline. While the total number of customers who use wireless handheld VoIP technology may decline, but overall use of VoIP services to replace household landlines by grow so much that it carries the entire Industry. With a young technology, it can be difficult to know which niche can grow, but current data should indicate those that have the most promise given the current environment within the telecom market.
A September 2005 FCC report titled “Trends in the International Telecommunications Industry” provides significant insight into the progress of the Telecom industry since the 1950s, as well as how new technologies impacted the industry overall. For example, prior to 1960, the Telegraph industry dominated revenue shares of the Telecom market. After the 1960s, voice telephone service finally surpassed telegraph/telex service, and today the voice/telephone industry is the telephone industry.
PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) is the landline phone that we are all familiar with. To make a call, you pick up the receiver and dial numbers. The telephone number is the key to making the connection to the right person, a sort of address if you will. The VoIP uses an address as well, an IP address to direct your proposed call to the right party. When you use one to make a call to the other, the address or phone number is translated to the right one and the call is completed. If you are using VoIP to make a call, the PSTN address or phone number directs the call, and if you are using a landline, the PSTN network then translates the IP address in the same way.
How much money will you really be hoping to save if your system is constantly crashed and your customers are going unanswered at the other end? One loss call may not be that big of a deal for the guy at the coffee shop who had called his Aunt Tilly in Fresno, but in business, there is really no such thing as just one dropped call.
