News, Coffee & VoIP

How coffee shops and information workers can drive the future of VoIP? How blogs can help increase the awareness of VoIP technology among people? Somebody might had thought about this because currently we can search a lot of blogs and website that talk about VoIP. Everyone try their best to provide valuable inputs or information to the users. Internet not only become information resource but also one of communication medias. China also gradually open the strictly-controlled Internet phone market to non-telecom firms. Before this China bans services like SkypeOut to prevent them jeopardizing the less competitive fixed-line business and to protect the revenue of state-owned telcos, including China Telecom and China Netcom. Only six state-owned carriers can launch the "PC to Phone" service under the current policy.

Then how about Malaysia? Do people really care about VoIP technology? There are no specific statistics regarding this matter but from my observation, I think Malaysian still not really expose to this new scenario. Maybe because of digital gap between people in rural and urban area. Current trend in Malaysia is communication companies always try to keep their their customer loyalty and find new potential customers. "Managing profitable customer relationship". That is why now Malaysian can enjoy a quite low rates for SMS and also phone call. Maybe also because of Akademi Fantasia Fever.

Gradual deregulation of VoIP

CHINA is studying a new VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) policy and plans to gradually open the strictly-controlled Internet phone market to non-telecom firms from the second half, industry insiders said. At present, China bans the "PC to Phone" VoIP service, which allows users to make calls through a Web-linked computer to a normal phone at a much lower rate. China will issue the first VoIP license to a South China-based firm, which is not a telecom operator. China will open the VoIP sector to all companies in 2007, China Business News reported yesterday, citing unidentified sources.

"It's a sooner or later thing to open the (VoIP) market," said Chen Jinqiao, a senior official at the Ministry of Information Industry but he declined to reveal more details as "it's not the right time (to talk)."

Two weeks ago, Lu Yang, another MII senior official, said in Beijing the ministry was drafting a VoIP policy and it will organize a nationwide "PC to Phone" trial service, other media reported. VoIP is a technology that makes telephone calls through a broadband Internet connection instead of an analog phone line, which costs users one-twentieth or less compared with traditional communications, especially for international calls.

[Read full article here]

AT&T and Avaya Form VoIP Partnership

VoIPNews.com : T&T and Avaya recently formed a partnership to provide VoIP transition assistance to companies who are ready to migrate from PSTN. The companies aim to provide a set of services including design, implementation, operation, ongoing management and maintenance. The idea is that many businesses and governments will be adopting VoIP solutions, but may have trouble making the transition. This alliance aims to assist with that transition and provide solutions that will make it at smooth as possible.

The partnership seeks to provide a single source for the seamless integration of IP-based voice and data networks worldwide, reduced cost, flexibility to deploy VoIP at the businesses convenience, 24 hour customer support, AT&T Global Client Support Center and Avaya help center integration, and web management capabilities using AT&T BusinessDirect Web portal.

A Yankee Group report cited in an AT&T press release states, “VoIP has shifted from an emerging technology to a critical busines ssolution," according to Paris Burstyn, Director at Yankee Group. "We estimate the business VoIP market will grow at a CAGR of 31.4 percent to reach almost $3.3 billion in 2010. VoIP and IP telephony solutions appeal to businesses as they provide an excellent converged platform for voice and data, and improve the manageability of communications. In working with AT&T, customers can leverage the reliability and scalability of its global IP-MPLS network in support of their solution.”

Both companies have been working on interoperability in the past two years, in order to lay the groundwork for such a convergence. Using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), AT&T and Avaya have built their architecture around a common standard with the goal of providing secure and efficient networks.

The advantage of this alliance is that it would offer people who are not in the emerging technology market the advantage of staying ahead of the curve. As VoIP becomes more mainstream and emerges as the new standard for business and residential telephony, having solutions to migration will become more integral for adoption. This alliance has intervened in the process to help fill the void and are transitioning businesses from legacy telephones to VoIP with the least amount of productivity loss possible.