----- Original Message -----
From: "Patrick Leary" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "'WISPA General List'" <wireless@wispa.org>
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2006 9:06 PM
Subject: [WISPA] VoIP. Looking for your input
So VoIP over wireless is a very important topic to us at Alvarion right
now.
Increasing we are being told by new customers that much of their equipment
choice is or will be based on the ability to offer true "double play" in
scale. Essentially, they say the need to offer bundled services is a must,
not an option, in order to remain competitive going forward. I am
interested
to hear listers inputs on the subject. Some questions I have:
1. Is VoIP part of your plans?
Maybe. So far no one has been able to show me how I can compete with Vonage
etc. VoIP can be purchased from anywhere so we'll have to compete against
all of the well funded players eventually. I'm also guessing that it will
be almost free sooner than later, much like hotel access or hotspots.
I'm looking at the new VoIP company that's a WISPA vendor member. We'll see
what kind of program they have to offer.... The biggest problem here is
that a pots line is under $20 per month. Maybe $25 but no more than that.
Business lines are $37 or so. And with long distance built into cell phone
plans at no charge, what's the benefit?
2. Do you believe VoIP is a viable offering for a WISP?
Out here the trend is already to drop the pots line for cell phone.
I think SOME WISPs will make money on VoIP. It'll be VERY market specific
though.
3. What type revenue contribution in terms of additional ARPU do you think
VoIP can add?
I think that once prices do down far enough and hardware becomes available
it'll be a bundled element. Like email and web space is today.... No
benefit but little or no cost either.
4. If you will or are doing VoIP as a service, will/are you leveraging
third
parties? If so, who do like?
I really like the guys at PacWEST
(http://www.pacwest.com/pacwest/index.shtml). Hutch is a great guy. They
just don't have a small enough option for us. I need to start a VoIP
project with 4 or 5 lines not 400 or 500. I also don't want to buy my own
switch etc.
5. Would VoIP be offered to your commercial customers, residential or
both?
Everything we do is available to both. In our market, serving one or the
other isn't an option.
6. If you are obtaining your own switch, what brands are in your top 3?
7. Does VoIP capability drive any of your wireless equipment decision
making?
Not at this time. I DO see the ability to prioritize VoIP traffic that
others provide as a possible revenue source. But so far, even on my wifi
system, VoIP works just fine.
Heck, I took my mobile cop care setup out in the ski boat the other day. On
land I can get 1300/450 KBps out to www.speakeasy.net. In the boat I got
700/300. If only I could type and ski at the same time! hehehehehe Oh
yeah, that tower is fed by a DSL line.....
8. If you are doing now, could you architect out how you do it and what
adjustment it forced in terms of capacity planning on your wireless
network?
The only thing we do at this time is prioritize the ip addy of the VoIP
devices for that that want to pay an extra $5 per month. So far I'm my only
taker.
Any other comments or issues on the subject would be welcome.
We're trying to teach our business customers to use IM instead of phones for
quick conversations to people in remote offices.
When the cell phone companies figure out how to make a group of cell phones
tie into a phone system like normal phone lines I think you'll see phone
lines drop a lot. Most of the business people, especially managers and
sales types, have cell phones already. The ONLY thing not easy to do is
transfer a call to them via the front desk.
For those sitting at desks, it seems to me that a system that ties into the
PC and uses that for the phone set is the way to go.
In our office we have a Panasonic 4 line portable phone system. We tried to
do something similar with an * box but just couldn't get our arms around it.
Instead we just plug our Vonage line into the phone system and NOTHING
changes for us. We just have to remember to use line 2 for long distance.
Hope that all helps,
marlon
Patrick Leary
AVP Marketing
Alvarion, Inc.
o: 650.314.2628
c: 760.580.0080
Vonage: 650.641.1243
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