Switching away from VoIP
There are some rumors floating around in the blogosphere of people moving away from VoIP. And these “rumors” are coming from early adopters, such as Telepocalypse’s Martin Geddes. While Martin definitely raises some interesting points, what troubles me is the lack of clear separation between Internet based telephony services such as Skype and businesses IP telephony systems.
While first stating that “VoIP is a mistake.”, Geddes clarifies himself in another blog post stating that: “they’re all proving unsuitable for business use with clients”. This is exactly what I am talking about. Internet telephony is a nice gadget, that allows you to easily connect to your buddies at a really low rate or even free. But don’t expect a great service and crystal clear quality when you’re paying next to nothing.
Business IP telephony on the other hand, is not about cost savings, at least not in the first place. Many IP telephony platforms are even more expensive than their analog counterpartse. While IP telephony can definitely be a means to achieving cost savings, it is about integrating voice and data and creating a new platform to integrate communications. The quality and reliability you’re getting is at least what you should expect from a traditional phone system.
These are two entirely different solutions, for an entirely different audience. Yet they are both referred to as VoIP or IP Telephony. And while technically that’s true, I suggest we find new or more specific terms to indicate these differences. I’ll be using Internet Telephony (for VoIP services such as Skype, etc.) and IP Telephony (for business VoIP systems) until someone comes up with a better idea.
