| bloggers and industry experts have been in deep | | | | VoIP is a technology, like a floppy disk drive or an iPod. |
| discussion this year about whether or not VoIP is dead. | | | | It’s the content that you put on those disks and |
| This question might be a little bit more complicated than | | | | iPods that make them useful. Similarly, the content |
| some might think. Most would think of VoIP as simply | | | | (applications) you build on a VoIP platform is what |
| providing dial tone and long distance, but VoIP | | | | makes VoIP technology useful. Such applications could |
| telephony is so much more than that. And while many | | | | include hosted call recording, telemanagement, or ACD |
| VoIP providers may not be seeing the quick adoption | | | | reporting software. The more top of the line |
| to VoIP that was expected, that may have more to | | | | applications a carrier offers its customers, the more |
| do with their applications offerings than their delivery of | | | | desirable its service will be. It is the applications that |
| dial tone and long distance service. | | | | make the VoIP service, not the service itself, and the |
| Issues with VoIP adoption have centered largely on | | | | future opportunities in VoIP will be in providing the most |
| service quality. These issues have turned many early | | | | advanced applications options to customers. This will |
| adopters away from VoIP and they have gone back | | | | be the future differentiator. |
| to their traditional wire-line service. And they were right. | | | | So, to say that VoIP is dead might be a bit premature. |
| There were issues with phone line service quality as | | | | The way that VoIP technology was originally delivered |
| well as customer service quality in a large segment of | | | | is becoming a thing of the past and better ways of |
| the VoIP market. But, here we are talking about VoIP | | | | deploying VoIP service are emerging, but VoIP itself is |
| as if it is as simple as providing a dial-tone. | | | | alive and well. VoIP’s future success rests on |
| The beauty of VoIP, and the reason that VoIP is not | | | | the fact that it is easily deployable and that the best |
| and will not be dead in the near future, is simply that | | | | and most robust business-critical applications are |
| VoIP provides an excellent building block to providing | | | | available and will continue to be available in the VoIP |
| business-critical applications that are more flexible, | | | | framework. Applications providers have more options |
| scalable, and geographically redundant than was | | | | and more flexibility in the VoIP architecture to provide |
| possible with traditional wire-line technology. By | | | | that flexibility, and business customers are going to |
| VoIP’s very nature, given that it is service | | | | continue to require that these applications options be |
| providers via the web, it is easily integrated into a more | | | | available. The real question that we should be asking |
| flexible portfolio. VoIP telephony is not limited by | | | | ourselves is, who will be providing the best and most |
| physical telephone wires and the markets are much | | | | diverse applications feature-set to their customers? |
| easier to infiltrate because the internet is its | | | | Because these are the VoIP providers of the future. |
| backbone…and the internet is everywhere. | | | | |