At one point, telephone service was voice, email/instant messaging was words and the two did not intermingle. Now the two have converged and the world of communication is poised to explode in new and exciting ways.
VoIP Calling Cards
The phone company worried about the loss of business when mobile phones first starting exploding onto the scene, but did nothing to lower their prices to keep or lure back phone customers. The circuits and equipment are expensive to install and maintain, so prices had to remain fairly high so that there could be at least some semblance of a profit to be had.
Another very good sign for VoIP businesses is the fact that interest in mobile VoIP technology has risen by over 50% since 2005. As the chart shows, the popularity of mobile VoIP has steadily increased over the past few years, peaking in 2007, and then settling in 2008. This represents another very hot VoIP niche. The success of this niche depends heavily on mobile technology and the public’s interest in using mobile communications.
The trend for “business voip” is fascinating. While interest in business VoIP remained strong and constant throughout 2005 and 2006, it saw no growth. Suddenly, in January of 2007, Securities Industry News reported that Eze Castle Integration launched “Eze Business VoIP Solutions,” and interest spiked drastically up to March, then again almost as high through July, and then by fall of 2007, popularity of the search term fell lower than 2005/2006 levels, and it’s been steadily declining ever since. Again, interest remains strong, but it appears the initial “novelty factor,” a common draw with new technology, has simply warn off.
Teamspeak is a software package that allows communication over the Internet, much like Skype does. Teamspeak is focused on providing a many-user conferencing solution, and the company is focused on the gaming niche and the online social network niche. Best of all, the company offers the Teamspeak software for free to non-commercial users.
Voice over Internet protocol evolved over years with the huge demand for users to use the low cost internet to transport voice cheaply. Today, the protocol has become a technological advancement that revolutionizes the way we make long distance calls for business and personal use. VoIP protocol converts regular analog audio signals into digital data for transportation over the Internet.
Many experts believe that the recent worldwide market downturn may actually help the VoIP industry, due to the fact that both individuals and businesses are looking for ways to cut costs. In many ways, the PC-based VoIP services such as Skype, for example, appeal to people who are looking for a free, or near free solution to making phone calls.
Because the industry is so variable and because it’s becoming integrated into so many parallel telecom industries, estimates for VoIP market growth range widely, from 12 million to 44 million estimated residential customers by 2010. According to a 2008 study, almost half of all global IT organizations globally have installed or implemented VoIP into their infrastructure. The jump was from 31% in 2007 to 48% in 2008.
Telephone and Internet service are becoming more necessities rather than luxuries, especially considering how far-flung all of our family members have become. Personal and business communication are done at the speed of light now with emails and IM on the computer, and text messaging on your cell phone. Reaching out and touching someone has grown far too expensive and families were relying on sketchy cell phone service or just “reading” the news.