View to the Woods

Along comes Vonage, co-founded by Jeff Pulver the evanglist of VOIP for years. Today, Vonage has over 400,000 customers and is leading the market. In the Newsweek article, they indicated that over 43% of multi-national company are aggressively implementing VOIP. The most telling quote in the article was from Cathy Martine, senior VP of AT&T was:

"It's not a question of if this will become the new standard for voice transmission, but when."

VOIP's big boost was all the fiber connectivity built by the backbone providers like: AboveNet - part of MMFN; BroadWing; GlobalCrossing; Level3 and nLayer -- created tremendous amount of dark fiber just waiting for the right "killer application" to start using it. It is amazing to consider that AboveNet has 20 million miles of fiber world-wide, 16 million of which is here in north America.

Here we are today. All the players, including the cable companies are jumping into VOIP for both their corporate and consumer clients. In addiition, there is Skype providing free VOIP between Skype users or a prepaid service to talk wired/land-connected phones.

VOIP is some ways does represent the digital-device glue to connect not just the computer, but traditional non-computer devices like phones, TVs, etc., to the larger world.

Anyway, back to my experience ...

Playing with Apples?
The next hurdle was how well Vonage supported Apple, specifically the use with our AirPorts systems in both southern California and in Washington.

Clearly, the plan is to take the LinkSys/Vonage router when we travel to the island -- isn't that one of the advantages of VOIP is portablility.

Before we made the purchase of the LinkSys/Vonage router, I visited their support forum and did some search and found two very good threads about installing and configuration issues with the Airport stations. Armed with this knowledge, we purchased the router, including a $50 rebate making the system less than $40.

Of course the majority of the router manual assumed a Windows environment, but the browser based setup seemed straight-forward. There was a constant reminder to use IE 5.x+ to access the router.

I powered down the entire network, including the DSL modem. Placed the LinkSys/Vonage router between the modem and the Airport Extreme. Connected all the other cables and a 5.4Ghz phone. Started powering up with the modem, then router and finally my PowerBook connected via an ethernet cable.

Opening IE, I entered the router IP and as able to access the setup menu. Entering all the network parameters I hit save. Immediately got a 404 error. I attempted to access the Internet -- no luck.

So, I accessed the router control panel -- the parameters did not save. Again, I entered the necessary information and hit "save." The same 404 error. This time, I powered-down everything and started over.

Rather than using IE, I opened FireFox and immediately noticed the parameters had not been saved. Once again, I re-entered the parameters and hit "save."

Ah, this time, a new screen indicating that the router was re-starting and to please wait till this screen clears. Sure enough, the screen cleared and the parameters locked in.

Immediately, I when to Google and was able to use the Internet. I accessed the "voice" page and Vonage system had started to do "it's thing" and I noticed the phone light on the router now illuminated and I had dial-tone. So far so good -- now to the Airport to get all the other devices in the house online.

The forum indicated that it was critical to configure the Airport for the IP range of 192.168.10.x. Under the network tab, the pull down gives the option of selecting this range rather than the traditional 10.0.0.x range.

Select that range, the Airport re-booted and I noticed that the AirportExpress was also now registering -- looking good. So, I unplugged the ethernet cable and re-connected to the wireless network and my PowerBook was online, just like normal.

VOIP and the Future
Like any emerging technology, there are issues to be considered and unfortunately people who will exploit the new technology -- SPIT (spam over Internet Telephony is among them.

There is also issue of "do not call list" which for traditional land based phones have come under federal regulations. However, the openess and low-barrier of entry for VON (voice over network) turns this issue into a global matter. We all know how difficult SPAM is to regulate -- the same could be very true to VON.

Rather than focusing on the negative, what are the possibilities? It seem logical that VON and WiFi are a get potential marriage. iFreedom based in the UK seems to think so. They are combining traditional VOIP with WiFi -- now the cellular providers paradigm is starting to look ready for disruption -- creating VoWIFI, a mashing of acronyism.

This week, Cox Cable announced their intent to enter into VoWiFI, prompting Vonage to respond with their own VoWiFi program.

VOIP is still in the early days. With over 1 million subscribers today as compared to 150 million phone subscribers, VOIP has got a considerable way to go. But as we all know, Internet time converts a garage idea into wide-spread acceptance overnight. I would guess that the corporate IT world will push VOIP very, very fast. The economic issues for large, multi-nationals to become their own telephony provider is too strong.

The next big market is the SOHO, solo business person and small virtual businesses who can maximize their communication needs, without wiring/infrastructure issues, as well as a technology that offers some very cool features under the control of the subscriber.

Take the small technology consulting business -- 4 or 5 employees who are already dealing with consumers over the net. More than likely, client rarely visit their physical office -- either because of geographic issues or because they visit their clients. So, cut the monthy expense of leasing office space and send everyone home.

Provide staff with broadband connectivity, create a VPN for connecting to the office servers (hosted outside with world-class organizations like The Planet) and create an office phone system using VOIP.

Beyond the usual required tool of voicemail, a good VOIP system will provide chain-ringing which starts with one number and continues to try each phone in the pool until either someone answers or finally drops into voicemail. Some systems like Vonage have a "ring all" when a call comes in -- great for emergency support contact needs.

With voicemail, messages can be delivered via e-mail, downloaded from web-interfaces, etc.. This isn't a big trick. What is bigger is the ability to send the message to the most appropriate person, or add the communication to the digital archive for that client, employee or project. Let's go one step further -- you travel frequently -- using the PodCast concept, you download all your voicemail before your flight to your iPod and listen when and wherever you are. Another demostration of how the timeshift concept is having an impact on the way we use information.