The Globe and Mall characteristically has some very solid technolgy reporting.  Today's VoIP article by Dan McLean is no exceptio. It's a well done piece, but VoIP, in fact all uniified communications, is a very expansive topic that's often only partially covered by any article. This seems a good opportunity to make a couple of counterpoints.

This article talks about Skype, Jajah, Paltalk, PeerMe, Gizmo Project and Vbuzzer, all free solutions. Then goes on to note that "many businesses are still reluctant to invest in VoIP technology
because of a perception that it's an inferior voice communication
alternative."  I'm not sure that's the case at all. The numebrs of businesses investing ni and deploying VoIP are very large, with virtually all large business admitting they'll invest ni and deploy VoIP over the next 2-3 years. And a huge percentage already have some service or pilot in use.

VoIP's sound may be iffy, but it's not going away

The sound of people chatting on Skype and other free telephony services is not what you'll want to hear if you're a company investigating voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) technology.

It's not that VoIP doesn't have a place in the office -- it can be a very attractive technology for businesses. Rather, it's simply that the sound quality you'll hear when using free VoIP services such as Skype, Jajah, Paltalk, PeerMe, Gizmo Project and Vbuzzer to make telephone calls is generally poor.

If you've ever made or received a call placed from a desktop computer or a handheld wireless phone using the market-leading Skype or other peer-to-peer Internet protocol (IP) telephony software, then you know how bad it can be. In the words of Ovum Inc. research analyst Jan Dawson: "Skype [quality] can make for very good phone calls or dreadful calls."

Most often it's the latter. Granted, it all depends on the quality of the connection -- but when it comes to calls made on-line, you never know exactly what that connection will be. On the Internet, streams of voice and data rarely travel along the same path twice.

Later in the article he says

In reality, not all VoIP sounds like Skype. In fact, communication services providers such as Bell, Vonage and Telus, and network equipment makers such as Cisco and Nortel, must be beside themselves at the moment. They've spent a whole lot of time, effort and money trying to convince the masses that commercial VoIP is a business-grade service that can replace more expensive land-line phones.

First I'd like to ask how often he uses Skype. Too many people who denigrate the quality tried Skype on dial-up several years ago. The quality frequently, but not always, matches the PSTN. But it's a peer-to-peer technologys. It's dependent on the Internet, and the caliber of connections and resources based on IP's best efforts and end user's connections/systems. It is indeed a crapshoot of sorts. That's the benefit of IP-based networks in some regards,

McLean talks about Bell, Vonage and Telus and their investments in Cisco and Notrel gear. But what about enterprise business? Do you think they're using Skype and  free services? Asterisk and DIY VoIP? No. The're not. On the enterprise  VoIP solutions from Cisco, Avaya and Nortel (and other's we'd think of as the usual suspects) supported by tools like NetIQ's management platform and Prognosis from Integrated Research prevail. it's important to note that these are the same solutions in general that are used by the telcos, Vonage and Telus. This is carrier grade technology used by service providers to deliver billable services. And the quality shows.

Ever call Cisco for support? Do you realize Cisco is a VoIP shop running on their own products? Enterprise VoIP has become a viable tool for business and quality isn't a problem in a properly designed solution. I'll be writing more on this gap between the highly visible VoIP services people talk/buzz about and the real world of enterprise VoIP in the next few days. We need to delineate the different kinds of VoIP in the market, because there are several tiers in the VoIP market.


Technorati Tags: VoIP

Technorati Tags: VoIP