IP Business Magazine MORE FEATURES, SO WHAT? (February 21, 2007) - According to recent findings by comparison Web site VoipReview.org, VoIP buyers are getting more calling features for their money. Good news, indeed, but one has to wonder how much of a role “more features” can play in pushing VoIP services closer to the mainstream. Certainly, it’s encouraging to know that VoIP providers are offering more robust solutions. Based on VoipReview.org’s online search data, the average number of calling features included in VoIP provider plans ranging from $1 to $30 per month has steadily increased from 23.2 in April to 26.71 in November 2006. VoipReview.org search data also revealed that the average price of unlimited long distance home plans with 911 has remained somewhat consistent, with pricing at $25.46 per month in April and $25.18 per month in November 2006. “As VoIP providers compete for their share of the marketplace, you’ll see more and more calling features offered standard, with prices staying generally the same,” says Eric Laughlin, VoipReview.org CEO. Still, it’s fairly clear, and little surprise to most, that “cheap or free” is much stronger as a driver of adoption than overall “value for the dollar.” One only must look to Skype and the PC-based calling market to prove this out. The vast majority of Skype's growth, as Yankee Group senior analyst Patrick Monaghan points out, has come from international markets where free PC-to-PC calling has flourished due to high phone tariffs. In the U.S. meanwhile, “low long-distance rates have hindered adoption,” says Monaghan. Among Skype’s 136 million subscribers worldwide, only about 12 million are U.S. subscribers, he says. Monaghan also suggests that ease of use is a better catalyst to adoption, particularly within the “bring your own broadband” model. In the case of Skype, for example, the development of a user interface that looked and acted like an instant messaging application made the voice platform simple and familiar to many potential users. Skype also simplifies the installation process, says Monaghan. “Most PC-based VoIP applications and broadband VoIP soft phones need to be configured based on the user’s network environment and firewalls, which requires multiple configuration steps that aren’t always uniform.” Skype, meanwhile, “overcomes these hurdles by circumventing firewalls and making the installation process as easy as running a downloaded executable and creating a new user account,” he says. An element that might be even simpler than simplicity itself is users’ desire to maintain their telephony identity, says Richard Koch, RNK Communications president and CEO. “You can have all the features in the world,” he says, “but the thing that is really valuable to the mainstream user is their phone number.” Koch is referring to the number porting issues end users have faced when switching numbers to and from VoIP providers, issues that are well documented on many VoIP user message boards. “People become the victim in the bantering and positioning between the Internet phone companies and the legacy phone companies, and who does what to whom,” he says. VoIP porting problems no doubt must be minimized before user horror stories begin to run rampant. As far as new features, Monaghan believes those involving mobility and integrating multiple communications channels will pique the most interest moving forward. “As consumers’ reliance on Internet access increases, remote access and communication demands increase,” he says. |