Om — A revolution is almost always thought to be the replacement of one class by another in power. Thus, the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution. The Internet certainly has not altered the power structure in the USA, as the presence of Mr. Bush attests. In fact, you could say it has helped consolidate the power of the capitalist right-wing. Socialists no longer exist in the USA, nor do any other leftist groups worth mentioning. To use the word “revolution” to mean “change” or “considerable change” sort of wrecks the meaning of revolution. By the way, I am not a revolutionist, quite the contrary.

what’s your point of view on Skype and why did you choose not to mention them in your post? You seem to like Skype and they have a lot of traction. Do you think that Skype is not a VoIP player like the other ones?

FYI, on the French market: like the other 1.5m French customers, I have at home for 29 Euros/month a triple play set up box with 6 Mbits Internet (some have 20Mbits), 90 TV channels, VoIP with unlimited free nationwide calls and cheap international calls (same price as Skype). I don’t need a computer to watch TV or give a phone call. I can just plug my cordless phone directly. Why would I use Skype? Skype is definitely a poor alternative to the VoIP service I already have.

VoIP Magazine writer Bryan Richard has a lot to say about Skype. I happen to think Skype is a good thing for VoIP in general as it increases awareness and brings more attention to the softphone. I also firmly beleive…

Thanks Om,
-eric

not sure what it is – maybe the sticky post is creating that. i would ask my tech folks to look at it. hopefully we can resolve it soon enough. is it doing anything funky in your news reader?

What is the javascript in your rss version of this article supposed to be doing???

window.document.getElementById(‘post-4566′).parentNode.className += ‘ adhesive_post’;

there were a lot of those who doubted the Internet. I didnot. I am not doubting the potential of VoIP but throwing up cautionary flags because of unbridled optimism and exuberance. I have lived through two bubbles and know the signs of what is right and what’s wrong. I am trying to give people a reality check. lets not get over excited, we are in this for a long haul. managing expectations is really what its all about.

all the punditry aside, one of the better VoIP apps is Skype. And that’s not saying much for a technology that is going to change the world.

revolution – i mean the trsnformation of century old circuit switched based PSTN networks to more IP based networks. revolution, because it will cause an upheaveal, and bring a deflationary pressure on the business like never before. it will be different from how we thing about communication, but as i said it will take a lot longer.

“revolution is going to take a lot longer.”

Could you explain what you mean by “revolution.” VoIP will make telephoning/televideoing cheaper, just like the Internet has made exchanges much cheaper. But revolution in the traditional sociological sense? I don’t see that at all. Your reasons for expecting a “revolution”? Thanks.

One reason I feel that VoIP will eventually take off is because of the unbridled greed of the phone companies. Just this morning a I read a report from the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel , showing how SBC has actually increased the rates on various features in Ohio, for example Call Forwarding and Three Way Calling. It is my belief that at some point consumers are going to get sick and tired of getting “nickled and dimed to death” by the big phone companies. Many of them will simply drop their landlines altogether and take cellular service only, but a significant number will still want a wired phone in their home that in effect is tied to the place, not necessarily to a particular person, and that is one market for VoIP. The other future market, if the Wi-Fi providers can get their act together, is cellular replacement, where Wi-Fi VoIP phones are used to bypass the per-minute charges associated will cell phone service.

Both traditional phone companies and cell companies are vulnerable because they are not offering what many consumers really want, which is a flat-rate service with no added charges for extra features. No type of service fits everyone’s needs but I think trying to predict the future of VoIP from what we see today is like trying to predict the future of the Internet looking at the number and type of people who were using it in, say, 1991.

listen PSTN comparison makes absolute sense because that’s precisely what everyone from Vonage to cable MSOs are selling. A PSTN replacement. You might have noticed Skype is not in the mix.

Some folks are making an argument about PBX etc. Just to remind you – this is retail/consumer market data only. Martin, i think in the corporate sectors we are already seeing the impact. Also many of the readers skipped the part where I say – it is the long haul, and that’s what we should be focused on. revolution is going to take a lot longer.

It feels now a bit like the cellular market circa 1990, after 15-off years of tentative lukewarm commercialisation, the explosion of adoption is just now looming. These things take time, but by the time the mass start adopting it’s too late to formulate your strategy.