VoIP: Here, There, Everywhere
Fans of Internet telephony will soon have a significantly larger selection of providers, as some of the biggest fishes in the telecommunications industry rush to roll out services. On Thursday, AT&T, the largest U.S. long-distance provider, put its weight behind the popular technology, announcing that it will begin selling telephone service using voice over Internet protocol. AT&T's move was the latest in a flurry that promises to bring VoIP into the mainstream. Earlier in the week, Time Warner Cable announced plans to enter the national VoIP market.
Time Warner, the second-largest cable company in America, has been testing VoIP technology in Portland, Maine, since last May and now intends to roll out service to its customers across the country. AT&T and Time Warner join an increasingly crowded field, as Comcast, Cablevision and Cox Communications all are offering VoIP service on a limited basis, and all are planning to roll it out more widely soon.
These companies join stand-alone providers of VoIP service such as Vonage and VoicePulse that provide users with adapters to hook up their phones to their existing broadband connections, as well as local telephone companies such as Qwest, which began selling VoIP to some customers in Minnesota on Monday. But what does all of this activity mean for consumers? If all one wants to do is make phone calls as cheaply as possible with the best sound quality available, analysts say the increased availability of VoIP is great news.
"I think that 2004 is going to be the most interesting year in telecom in quite a while," said Boyd Peterson, who tracks consumer technologies at the Yankee Group. "We're going to see companies going out and advertising the fact that your phone service doesn't have to come from the phone company any more."
One way that Peterson expects VoIP providers will try to lure customers is through lower and more predictable costs. "The pricing structure for voice communications is going to take a turn to the logical," said Peterson. "All of the variants in the past -- with local, regional and long-distance calls -- are going to go away. It's going to be more simple, with a flat fee for all calls." more>>>