a multi-tasked stream of consciousness or perhaps just emails to myself
8.12.2004 Skype for Mac OS X Beta 0.12.0.8
Quite a few other bug fixes and changes as well…
Andy at VoIP Watch notes the rise of Cablevision in VOIP, but with a distinction in service I am not sure most people will actually care too much about. Geographic portability tends to be more extreme use of the service rather than just saving money…
Cablevision’s Optimum Voice VoIP service is now at 250,000 subscribers, making them clearly the number two to Vonage and the runaway leader within the MSO’s when it comes to telephony services that are SIP based.
But unlike CallVantage, VoicePulse, Vonage, Packet8, Broadvoice or any of the other telephone adapter driven competitors, you can’t go to another broadband enabled location and take your VoIP with you.VoIP Watch
Andy at VOIPWatch points to a review of a beta product which when running on your PC can function as an answering machine for Skype. Personally, I’d prefer a network based voicemail, so I could receive messages whether or not my computer was on…but this is as good as it gets until Skype delivers.
I am not sure if it’s actually a VOIP product, but Time Warner has officially launched their voice product here in NYC. It’s called Digital Phone – a shockingly boring name and costs $39.95/month. That’s less than Verizon, but more than options from Vonage or AT&T CallVantage.
Feature-wise, Digital Phone falls a bit short. Forwarding is one line, there’s no conference calling and no email announcing of voicemail or listening online. There’s also no call log, or way to click to call from the computer.
I’d say this is purely for people looking to save money on existing phone service – though willing to take a chance with their cable company rather than use the phone company since the service quality is unknown. Time Warner does have access to free media on TV, so I expect to see quite a bit of it while the tube is on. I actually learned about the product from a generic bill stuffer (you had to actually go to the main site and see if service is available in your area), but checked it out tonight after seeing a local market commercial on TBS.
I just got my first bill for our home number from AT&T and while the CallVantage service has had a few quirks, I just saved roughly 50% from previous bills from Verizon. 50% baby! That’s huge! Low balling the exact figure to $40 saved per month saves me $480 per year!
Andy at VoIP Watch states VOIP is going Mass Market, a position I totally agree with based on my experience and understanding of what’s been going on. AT&T is never a small player in any of the markets they play within and CallVantage is clearly replacing all previous marketing efforts in Local, Long Distance and even Wireless for them.
Vonage and others have their work cut out for them as they try and keep up with smaller marketing budgets as well as smaller Brands. The games have already begun – glad to have been early on the ticket line!
Veteran journalist J.D. Lasica interviews Skype co-founder and CEO Niklas Zennström about the future of voice communication, using Skype through wi-fi handhelds, and the coming death of the telecom dinosaurs… [ Engadget]
In my very unscientific tests here in the home lab, I have noticed a significant difference in call quality between Vonage and CallVantage.
I’ve made calls at similar times with similar loads on both my internal network as well as traffic flowing in and out via iPodder and Bit Torrent. MIleage may vary for you, but I have yet to hear or experience any crackling, skipping or stuttering with CallVantage and have heard my share of issues including unusable connections on Vonage.
Price is one issue and Vonage is certainly leading there, but CallVantage delivers the better voice experience (and still saves you mucho dinero) which is the real issue with phone service. It needs to just work.
I just discovered that there is no 411 service on AT&T’s CallVantage service. You can only do lookups via their Anywho.com service or obviously any other online directory of your choosing. Kind of a strange piece to leave out if you ask me. I don’t call 411 too often, but just tried and found out it does not work. After a call into customer support, I discovered it’s not offered at all.
Havas certainly needed this win…
Should be interesting to see how this money gets spent as it’s going to be very tough to keep up with the market setting spend of ATT CallVantage.
Internet phone service pioneer Vonage, in a tough battle to maintain market share in the emerging market, said it has awarded its estimated $50 million to $75 million advertising account to Havas-owned agencies, including MPG and Arnold One.
Arnold Worldwide, including its interactive unit, Arnold One, will handle creative, while MPG picks up the media buying and planning portion. [Ad Age]
I got this working today and am very pleased… I am back to my previous network and ports I was redirecting to various places from outside are working again. This means I can now make and receive calls correctly from behind any router in theory which means I can make and receive calls from anywhere I want, like a hotel, and not have to worry about getting blocked – at least until they catch on in the hotel world and once again force you to pay extra to use their land lines…
Thanks to Andy for the assistance!
I got my D-Link TA from AT&T yesterday and installed the box, got the required updates for it and then tired moving it behind my router, but that mission failed. I tried a variety of things, but no luck yet. Perhaps in a subsequent update. In speaking with customer support, you are supposed to be able to move it once it has been addressed and configured.
In any case I am looking forward to my last bill from Verizon this month and saving about 50 bucks each month thereafter.
An interesting piece from VNUnet on Skype’s pending video service… also noted is the recognition that not going with SIP may have been a mistake. Time will tell…
Peerio is getting out of the gate with a nice bang. They are the latest in the P2P VOIP space, but unlike Skype require no connection with the network other than through the other users. Skype requires the connection to ping the directory server in order to properly list you in a friend’s call list. Also unlike Skype there are a boatload of features with the PC to PC calling like Voicemail and quite a few others. PC to PC is free and Peerio currently works on Windows and Linux, with Mac coming soon.
Pretty cool new Blackberry coming…
Research In Motion (RIM) is demonstrating a new BlackBerry Wireless Handheld today at the Gartner ITXPO Symposium that operates on 802.11b networks and incorporates both voice and data capabilities. Expected to be commercialli available next year, the BlackBerry 7270 will be the first BlackBerry handheld to feature VoIP and WLAN support.
According to RIM, the company has been testing functional prototypes internally and will begin external customer trials with select organizations starting next month. The company said its BlackBerry 7270 supports VoIP telephony which extends desktop phone functionality to a BlackBerry wireless handheld, utilizing SIP-based call control to deliver interoperability with IP PBX and traditional corporate telephony equipment.
Further details on the new BlackBerry 7270 and general availability will be announced at a later date. [ infoSync ]
The company is going to release a new software offering for Wi-Fi phones that makes it easy for users to find signals, authenticate themselves and manage their profiles without a thumb-numbing amount of button pushing. Now something like this could be quite interesting and will offer a lot of utility to the corporate users. [GigaOm]
This seems like a big deal in VOIP-land…
The service providers, seven in the United States and three in Europe, are “very close” to using VeriSign’s behemoth signaling network to ensure that subscribers’ calls reach those using traditional home, office or cell phones, VeriSign Vice President Tom Kershaw said Monday.
There are only a handful of network operators, including Level 3 Communications, AT&T and others, with the infrastructure to offer such a service. Seeing an opportunity for its own network, VeriSign began wooing Internet phone operators four months ago.
“Now (Net phone service providers) can use and abuse us,” a VeriSign spokeswoman adds. [News.com]
Andy at VoIP Watch has a nice overview on what’s coming this year from Skype… CNET also covers the stoy.
With the right headset and features (like incoming and voicemail) Skype becomes a very usable tool rather than just an easy way to talk to people around the globe from your computer.
Earthlink goes VOIP…
For now, Earthlink’s phone service will only allow its customers to call one another via their computers instead of through their regular phones. That means they need a headset, or a microphone and speaker, and will have to dial an Internet address instead of a normal phone number. As a result, avid technology users are likely to be the only ones to take advantage of EarthLink’s offer. (EarthLink also offers Internet phone service through Vonage.)
But in the next 12 months, the company expects to offer its own expanded service that allows people to use their regular phones and call anywhere, though that service won’t be free. Earthlink’s service is similar to one offered by Skype Technologies SA, a Luxembourg-based Internet phone company that offers free computer-to-computer calling and recently began allowing its customers to make calls to regular phones for a low fee. [WSJ.com]
According to MediaPost…
Arnold Worldwide, Carat, and Lowe, along with Avenue A/Razorfish, are the remaining agencies competing for Vonage’s estimated $50 million account.