VoIP Tech Chat

Can you believe that we haven’t posted a true VoIP Tech Chat in over a year? Although many of you are thankful for the break, we have decided to invade your favorite audio player once more (with feeling) with the first of (what we hope) will be many podcasts for 2010. This week we discuss Verizon Wireless, Vonage, Customer Service, and well, just a good ol’ fashioned VoIP Tech Chat.

As always, VoIP Tech Chat can be accessed from:

• VoIP Tech Chat (download mp3)
• iTunes
• And, thanks to popular request, you can also stream the chat by pressing the play button below

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Links of “Interest:”

• Follow Fred on Twitter
• Follow Patrick on Twitter (Yay!)
• Past Post from Patrick regarding a positive experience with Verizon

Residential VoIP - No Operators

Some say the media sensationalizes our economic woes for their personal gain. Others say the media accurately portrays the extreme financial burdens we find ourselves facing. And some people say, “Hey. I don’t care about anything, I always have and always will try to save money.” With today’s world becoming increasingly digital, VoIP (digital telephone) seems like a naturally good idea.

Clearly, we at VoIP Tech Chat advocate VoIP. We love it. We love it so much, we made a website called VoIP Tech Chat. And we actually now and then have chats and write articles on VoIP (ok, that last part was a little sarcastically since both Patrick and Fred seem to have been too busy to actually talk or write lately… but anyway…).
Read the rest of this entry »

With FCC approval, a Sprint-Clearwire merger seems imminent. eWeek reported today of Sprint’s FCC approval; paving the way for the 2 companies to merge.

Clearwire, which has a history of blocking VoIP providers such as Vonage and voip.com, may not have the best reputation for early adopters.

With a history of non-net-neutrality, we would hope that Clearwire (and Sprint) both make active statements about the future of WiMax service with VoIP and the ability to choose your own provider.

We can remember helping troubleshoot many a VoIP issue with Clearwire customers affected by their blocking policies. When asked, “Why would Clearwire block Vonage but offer their own VoIP service?” we would simply say, “because they can.” Although these issues were mostly in the past (2006), we must remember that history is a great predictor.

Pike & Fischer recently published their Residential VoIP Market Outlook. The reports advises that more than 8.5 million household will start using VoIP within 2 years — bringing the estimated number of US residential VoIP users to 30 million by 2010. Clearly 2010 will be a VoIP odyssey.

Traditional POTS providers such as at&t and Verizon will notice decreasing numbers of residential customers while stand alone VoIP providers (such as Vonage, Packet 8, and voip.com), Cable companies, and wireless providers pick up the slack.

Two weeks ago, we discussed how MagicJack recently became the fastest growing phone company in the US. Well, today twice.com reports that MagicJack is on track to reach 500,000 subscribers. Not too shabby considering the population of Tampa, Florida is about 300,000.

If MagicJack reaches 500,000, they will be the second largest VoIP provider; with only Vonage’s 2.5 million plus internet telephone subscribers ahead of them. The twice.com article talks about the MagicJack business plan and some of their future ideas. It’s not a bad read.

Imagine this scenario — You’re the bus driver. At your first stop, half of your passengers get off the bus and none get on. You keep driving and on the next stop, half of the remaining passengers get off, and again, no new passengers get on the bus. At the next stop, the same thing happens. You keep seeing passengers get off the bus, but no one is getting on. Now, what do you do? If you’re at&t, you raise the price of bus service. (For extra credit, who’s the bus driver?)

The Tennessean posted today that at&t is raising the rates of basic phone service and calling features in the hopes of increasing profits. Although basic phone service would increase by “pennies,” other features would see a much more significant increase. For example, Caller ID and Call Forwarding would increase about a dollar and bundle packs would increase about 2 dollars. Oh, and at&t reported a profit of 3.46 billion dollars — in just the first quarter.

So now, you’re a landline service provider. People are dropping landline service for VoIP and Wireless Only plans. You’re making an average of just over a billion dollars a month profit. You want that number to increase. So, you raise rates? Wouldn’t that make people jump ship even more? So, instead of making your services more attractive, you’re going to jack up prices on your loyal customers who are chosing to stay with you despite cheaper alternatives. Nice.

We love this quote:

A spokeswoman for AT&T, Dawn Benton, said the company’s decision to raise rates had nothing to do with the loss of landlines.

“Our focus is to bring greater value to our plans: a unified portfolio, greater consistency and simpler pricing right up front,” she said in a statement. “Even with these changes, we still offer some of the best values and offers in the market today.”

VoIP providers like voip.com, Vonage, and Packet8 bundle residential service and include more features than you’ll ever need. Oh, and most plans include long distance, too. Someone needs to help Dawn Benton find a clue.

The Senate unanimously passed legislation requiring 911 networks to play nicely with VoIP providers. Actually, the bill (dubbed the 911 Modernization and Public Safety Act of 2007) does more than sarcastically tell companies to play nice, but Patrick and Fred like to be sarcastic when discussing federal regulation. After all, it’s June 2008 and the Senate just now voted on legislation that the House of Representatives passed in November 2007. And now the bill goes back to the House for final approval.

By the way, for more information on how a bill becomes a law, please listen, read, and buy School House Rock’s “I’m Just a Bill.” Everyone together now, I’m just a bill, Yes I’m only a bill….

So, back in 2005 when Vonage started gaining popularity in the residential telephone game, the FCC decided that VoIP providers should be required to provide enhanced 911 to their subscribers by 2006. Well, VoIP providers did their best, but 911 routing definitely does not come in a one-size-fits-all type of system. Every 911 center has their own integration and traditionally had been controlled specifically by brick and mortar POTS companies; who weren’t super pleased with integrating their services to companies stealing their customers.

VoIP providers asked the FCC for extensions and basically Congress came in and decided that more laws should be created to help the process.

The Act (H.R. 3403) requires the FCC to regulate VoIP to 911 connectivity and ensure VoIP providers receive access to 911 and enhanced 911 centers.The bill also sets into place how much local governments can charge VoIP carriers for these connections.

So, the bottom line?

Get ready for improved access to 911 from VoIP providers and get ready for more 911 taxes on your VoIP line.

A copy of the 911 Modernization and Public Safety Act of 2007 report can be downloaded right here from VoIP Tech Chat.

The AP reported today that MagicJack recently became the fastest-growing phone company in the United States. And we thought that only Fred and Patrick were up at 4am to watch those super, high-quality infomercials.

The parent company, YMax Corp out of Palm Beach, Florida, released sales figures showing 8 – 9000 sales per day. The MagicJack device sells for just under 40 dollars and includes a year of free calls within the United States and Canada. An additional year of phone “service” costs an additional $19.95.

Why put service in quotes? Right now, you are unable to transfer your existing number to magicjack; and according to their website, there will be a nominal fee when LNP becomes available.

With a device that requires connection to your home computer to both make and receive phone calls, this service truly has differences with “traditional” VoIP telephone providers such as Vonage, Voip.com, and Packet8. But, at $40 for a year of service, will anyone care? If you care to read more, Michael Graves has a nice little post about Magic Jack on his blog.

Let’s play the pyramid game. You remember the Pyramid, no? One of Dick Clark’s best game shows, hands down. Plus, anytime you pair stars with average Joe’s — well, let’s just say Foundation for Excellence. So, enough introduction, let’s play pyramid.

F.W. Woolworth Company. Apple. Walgreens pharmacy. 

• Stores with agricultural names? (buzzer)
• Stores with automatic doors? (buzzer)
• Industry leaders who have since fallen from the top of their industry or floundered like fish at a deli? (ding ding ding)

Woolworth’s

F.W. Woolworth Company, or Woolworth’s, originated the entire five and dime concept. How big was Woolworth’s? The owner (interestingly enough named Mr. Woolworth), bought prime land in New York City and built the tallest building in the world. Oh yeah, the entire project — paid for in cash. We can’t even pay cash for a decent SUV; how sad is that. Anyway, Woolworth plowed itself into America (get it? America farmland? Plow? Oh well…) becoming one of the largest retail chains in the world. Read the rest of this entry »

About a month ago, Fierce VoIP reported on VoIP quality testing conducted by Keynote Systems. The results proved quite interesting.

Keynote determined (based on testing providers such as Packet8, Vonage, Verizon VoiceWing, Lingo, etc.) that most VoIP users can expect “merely tolerable” telephone service when compared to an at&t POTS line.

One of the VoIP providers tested failed to achieve any calls with an MOS score of 4.0 or better (ouch).

Why did Voip Tech Chat wait more than a month to post this news? Patrick and Fred were too busy talking about Lifelock and Ben Affleck movies. 

Oh, and Asterisk Voip News posted that a cool new IP Phone with a huge video screen is coming soon.