Hey Ian,
I thought you might enjoy this...Jeff
( from: Lightreading - http://tinyurl.com/4975 )
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SIP Is Hip, Say VOIP Promoters
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Traditional service providers beware. After years of predictions that
voice over IP (VOIP) would soon render conventional phone networks
obsolete, a new(ish) protocol may finally be making the technology
simple
and user-friendly enough to catch on.
Session Initiation Protocol, or SIP, is a signaling protocol for
establishing real-time calls and conferences over the Internet. Although
the protocol isnt exactly new -- its been around since the late 1990s --
many industry observers say that it is quickly evolving to take the
place
of the more established H.323 protocol.
The signaling technology has taken rather dramatic moves recently, and
most are coalescing over the SIP standard, says the chief scientist at
AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T - message board), Dave Belanger. We are now working
on
the signaling technology for VOIP, so that not only can you get the
services that you typically associate with voice, but you can get
services
that you associated with voice and data.
SIP is to communications what http is to the Web, says Jeff Pulver,
president and CEO of Pulver.com, and the co-founder of Free World Dialup
(FWD), which offers free IP telephony to anyone who has an IP phone.
With
SIP, its a lot less complicated to make a phone call, it takes less CPU
processing power and there are no royalties.
(Check out Light Readers' views on SIP and FWD at: Free World Dialup -
Try
out Broadband SIP Telephony.)
Of course, not everyone agrees that SIP is all that its been made out to
be. So many people are looking at [SIP] to use it for so many things
that
its slowing down the standardization process, says Paul Jones, part of
the
duo that runs the Packetizer Website that offers information about
packet-switched conversational protocols. Even though they intended to
start with something simple, theyve built something fairly complex.
While SIP may be more flexible and more extensive than H.323, Jones says
the protocol lacks some basic capabilities like a standard way of
sending
DTMF digits, which is what you do when you choose number options on your
touch-tone phone. Unless they resolve the issues, he says, SIPs not
going
to make a lot of progress I would expect that were going to see a
migration towards SIP, but SIP and H.323 may coexist for a long time.
No matter what protocol people use, more and more consumers and
businesses
are opting to abandon their plain old telephone service, or POTS, and
jump
on the VOIP bandwagon. While only about 10 percent of global telephony
today goes over IP, according to TeleGeography Inc., that number is
likely
to grow steadily over coming years.
That could have a tremendous impact on the traditional voice providers,
which have invested billions of dollars in their PSTN networks.
Although all of the large carriers are at least examining the
possibility
of offering VOIP services themselves, they are likely to hold back for
fear of eroding their traditional revenue stream. I think its something
that incumbent operators should be scared of, says James Enck, an
analyst
with Daiwa Securities Trust Co., Europe, noting that, although it might
be
easy to ignore now, the number of users could grow quickly. Five years
down the road, this thing could jump up and bite them in the behind.
Up until recently, traditional service providers didnt have much to
worry
about. The only people willing to make the leap of faith into IP
telephony
were technophiles and consumers looking for cheap international rates.
While VOIP can save consumers a lot of money, the complexity of the
technology as well as the questionable quality and reliability of the
service have dissuaded many from leaving POTS in the past.
Today, however, providers of VOIP claim that the audio quality on their
lines is as good as, if not better than, that of a traditional phone
line.
The voice quality is nothing short of amazing, Pulver says. The sex
industry hasnt found us yet, but trust me, phone sex never sounded
better.
Some disadvantages remain, however. Pulvers FWD service may be free
(after
you buy the IP-enabled end-devices), but calls can only go between
people
who use the service. Today, there are about 5,000 people on the FWD
network, but Pulver says he hopes to have as many as 50,000 by the end
of
September. Its like the first email addresses, he says, pointing out
that
at first very few people used email and now nearly everyone does.
But no matter how low the price, or how good the sound quality is, many
people still balk at the thought of having to make all of their calls
over
special, IP-enabled equipment. Several VOIP service providers have
therefore started offering voice services that can be accessed from a
regular phone, since they jump to a PSTN line for the last leg of the
trip.
One of those providers is Vonage Holdings Corp., which, since it
launched
its services last April, has bagged more than 7,000 customers and
completed more than 5 million calls. People can simply use their home
phone, Vonage spokeswoman Brooke Schultz says. They plug in and dont
even
know that theyre talking over the Internet... Its cheap phone service
with
a lot of cool features that you cant get from your traditional phone
company.
Vonages service isnt free like FWD, however. The company charges a $25
setup fee and then a flat $40 fee for all local and national
long-distance
calls.
Voice over IP is happening, but its happening in a variety of different
ways, says Frost & Sullivan analyst Elka Popova. Its an underlying
technology. It has various manifestations SIP does give some additional
leverage Once you have a SIP end device you can offer a larger variety
of
services.
Eugnie Larson, Reporter, Light Reading
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