Comments on: VoIP has serious problems

By: Om Malik’s Broadband Blog » SunRocket hit by problems, again

Om Malik’s Broadband Blog » SunRocket hit by problems, again — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 16:00:01 +0000

[...] The fledgling VoIP technology is not ready for prime time as yet. The proof of this came today when dozens of Sun Rocket, a Vienna, VA-based VoIP service provider reported extended outages, and expressed their dismay. This is not the first time VoIP users have had to deal with these problems. Broadvoice, Vonage and AT&T’s Callvantage at some point or the other have managed to go on the blink. Even Sunrocket had reported some problems earlier. [...]

By: David Garrett

David Garrett — Wed, 04 May 2005 22:00:54 +0000

Visit my website at (link)

David

By: David Garrett

David Garrett — Wed, 04 May 2005 21:56:53 +0000

When you guys get tired of playing with all this low tech VOIP technology, check out my webiste. I work for the Worlds’ Best VOIP service( and we can back that up). I have had my VOIP for almost a year now and have had 0 hours downtime. 911 and being fixed as we speak and in many areas we already offer it. Vonage adds on a lot of taxes and fees but we have a flat rate of 32.95 for residential and $38.95 for businesses. No add ons and no minute limit. You can even take your box with you when you go on vacation or out of town and if your hotel has high speed internet you can plug it in and your phone will ring as if you were at home and you can call anywhere in the U.S. and Canada for free! For $9.95 a month extra you can also get a clone”softphone” on your laptop or computer that will allow you to carry your home phone with you anywhere you have access to wireless or broadband. In the next few months we will be introducing a PDA unit that will put cell phones out of business in the near future. VOIP is a great thing, but many of the providers are selling 1st generation junk that is not perfected. Champion ran 1 million calls through our server at once and they were processed in 15 seconds. We also sell through network marketing and I have made a very good part time income in the past year selling the product. Champion can back up anything I say and fell free to email or call me if you want to know more.

By: Technology Futurist

Technology Futurist — Sat, 12 Mar 2005 17:30:26 +0000

How Reliable Should VoIP Be?

Om Malik reported on the outages of Vonage and Lingo last weekend, and also a similar instance last year with AT&T’s CallVantage service. He wonders what the impact will be in terms of customer satisfaction, once users realize that curr…

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 18:52:15 +0000

folks i think the more i hear about this stuff. the more i am convinced that we are seeing a repeat of what happend in the optical space. products were rushed to market too early and had scaliblity problems = this is no different.

By: mike gorman

mike gorman — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 18:15:42 +0000

It’s more than just reliability in terms of up time for VoIP, I am concerned that it becomes an easy target for a terrorist to take out large blocks of our communications at once. Remember that the PSTN has geographical diversity and there are priority emergency lines that get through even in major toll network outages, as well as local calls. I am not aware of any active interest by Homeland Security in this yet, but as VoIP increases it’s penetration I’m sure that will need to be addressed as well.

By: James Dennis

James Dennis — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 09:21:00 +0000

The question I always ask when confronted by someone touting replacement of SS7 communication technology etc…

“Interesting ‘magic box’ you have there, would you rely on it for emergency calls? ”
The answer is invariably “no thats not quite what is intended for”. Or once amusingly a “Lord no not a chance” from someone touting the 5 nine’s availability of their solution….

Same point as illustrated simply.

By: DG Lewis

DG Lewis — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 01:54:14 +0000

The problem isn’t that VoIP is intrinsically unreliable, or that VoIP networks have hit a tipping point in complexity, or that resources are concentrated or localized; it’s deeper and more subtle than that. Network reliability requires a culture of Reliability, Reliability, Reliability, and then some more Reliability, which is 180 degrees opposed from being a fast-moving, low-cost provider of disruptive technology for voice communications. Either approach is OK - but if a carrier markets itself as a “Phone Company”, they’re setting up expectations of Phone Company Reliability. If their culture is that of a fast-moving low-cost provider of disruptive technology, the mismatch will lead to problems.

By: Aswath Rao

Aswath Rao — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 23:58:01 +0000

Evidently the feared evnt of 911 failure happened recently. In my opinion this is an artificially created problem because all of us are thinking either/or. With the advent of TV, radio didn’t disappear; with TV and cable news, print media didn’t disappear. For sure lots of restructuring happened in both radio and print. I for one will advocate keeping both the networks and wireless to boot. Then I pick and chooose the appropriate network for the appropriate scenario. The “intelligence” at the end point will help me to select the appropriate one.

By: Abhishek Lahiri

Abhishek Lahiri — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 19:59:56 +0000

The main attraction for VOIP is that it is cheap. As long as calls made over VOIP are cheaper than calls made over POTS VOIP will have a market. Technological advances and Knowledge gathering will happen over time. Give it a couple of more years and I predict VOIP will replace POTS in most places unless the governments clamp down on VOIP with new regualtions and legislations.

By: Irwin Lazar

Irwin Lazar — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 17:12:18 +0000

Keep one thing in mind - a phone may be necessary for survival in life and death situations. Will people trust an Internet phone when they need to call for emergency help? What happens the first time the press picks up on a death from someone who tried to call 911 during a Vonage outage and couldn’t?

By: Irwin Lazar's "Real-Time" Blog

Irwin Lazar's "Real-Time" Blog — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 16:39:07 +0000

VoIP: Over-hyped?

This week is VON, perhaps the leading trade show focused on service provider VoIP topics, issues and trends. And not coincidentally, perhaps the most hyped show in the VoIP space. In his Blog, Om Malik’s questions whether or not VoIP

By: steve kamman

steve kamman — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 15:59:33 +0000

Also worth remembering that expectations for quality are likely less stringent as people rely more on wireless. Just a personal observation.

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 05:24:11 +0000

Fazal, thanks for the reminder - actually a lesson - on the coming problems in the telecom networks. what i am trying to say in the post up there is that VoIP needs to step up to the plate and offer similar quality if it needs to fill the coming PSTN void. I think that is the critical issue.

By: Fazal Majid

Fazal Majid — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 02:43:30 +0000

The reliability of conventional voice will start gradually declining for two reasons:

1. Telcos don’t want to put any more capex than strictly unnecessary in legacy equipment, and protocols like SS7 degrade catastrophically under load. France Telecom has had two major outages in the last 5 years due to SS7, for instance.

2. Due to bloodletting at firms like Lucent or Nortel, the institutional knowledge about the software in switches has mostly disappeared. The same thing 5 years ago caused AT&T’s Frame Relay network to stop completely because Cascade (acquired by Ascend, acquired by Lucent) had lost all the staff who had worked on the switches in the first place. As new engineers get in on the complex systems, they don’t know why certain coding decisions were made and you end up with complex bugs that are not triggered in the lab but occur in real-world conditions.