Voice Service

Verizon FiOS getting VoIP in early 2009

Doug Mohney — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 21:22:31 -0500

Coming in early 2009, Verizon is going to roll out a VoIP phone service for FiOS. It's not the defunct VoiceWing, but something completely different.

Verizon execs say FiOS Digital Voice service will be priced comparably to the phone company's existing calling plans, so it's not a low-cost play. This is an interesting statement, but the more interesting issue is how pricing will look when service is either included in a triple-play bundle (Internet, TV, voice) and/or otherwise competitively discounted. The offering is further described as a customer acquisition and retention tool.

The new VoIP service has been in limited deployment in markets in Virginia and Maryland since September and will be marketed to new customers across the 14 states where FiOS TV and Internet services are available.

Reports say FiOS Digital Voice service will use in-home wiring so customers can use existing phone jacks and include the usual bells and whistles such as caller ID, voice mail and visual voice mail through a web page, as well as new (for Verizon) capabilities such as scheduled call forwarding, simultaneously ring to multiple phone numbers, phone book synchronization and click to dial. Verizon will likely also throw in virtual phone numbers as an extra monthly charge.

Another interesting kicker is a choice of two calling plans: one provides unlimited direct dial calling to the U.S. and territories, Canada, and Puerto Rico for a flat monthly, and the other offers domestic calls for 5 cents per minute. Who's billing at 5 cents per minute for local calls these days?

For more:
- Multichannel News rings up Verizon VoIP story. Article.

SPOTLIGHT: Time Warner Cable 3Q VoIP count to 3.6M

Doug Mohney — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:58:04 -0500

Time Warner Cable announced it added 200,000 new voice accounts over the course of the third quarter. Voice revenues were up 37 percent and $113 million to a total of $421 million - a sweet piece of growth. There's also the addition of more than 214,000 broadband subscribers and 168,000 new "triple play" subscribers - people who bought a bundle of video, broadband and voice service in the quarter.

Total number of residential "Digital Voice" subscribers is now more than 3.6 million. It's all not roses, however. The company has seen a significant slowdown in subscriber growth in the fourth quarter.

For more:
- Read Time Warner Cable's 2008 3Q report.

Landlines – Tell me, how does this end?

Doug Mohney — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:23:10 -0400

Wall Street analysts continue to obsess over landline losses. Stop the madness already! "Tell me, how does this end?" is the real question worth examining.

Voice phone line losses have been on a downward spiral for years, but every quarter the numbers increase, there's more gnashing of teeth, pounding of the chest, more gloom and doom. It's fair to say that for the next five years there still will be more landline losses. Households are economizing by switching to cell phones and cable triple-play bundles with VoIP tucked in, while Millenials aren't even considering traditional voice service.

Ask the hard question: What fraction of wireline's traditional consumer customer base will have home phone lines in five years?

Millenials will say "Zero," but they need to be forgiven for their youth and inexperience. Cellular service is not universal or ubiquitous by any stretch of the imagination and for various safety and comfort reasons, the old POTS RJ-11 still has a good bit of legacy left to it.

Is the real answer fifty percent? Twenty percent? I don't know, but it would be interesting to have AT&T, Qwest and Verizon provide an answer and the logic behind it. Rural carriers (see Embarq/CenturyTel) will have a slightly different answer since cell towers aren't as ubiquitous outside of the Big City.

In other words, tell me how this ends.

At some point, losses will slow, if not level off to a steady pace. Farther down the road, phone companies will provide actual incentives for people to turn off their old POTS lines and switch over to broadband or wireless voice alternatives, because it will be too expensive and too much of a headache to keep the old gear in service.

Free phone service for a year in exchange for turning off your copper? The day may come sooner than anyone thinks.

VoIP has a big role to play in home communication service if femtocells don't squish out SIP handsets with "Lite" web browsers. Casabi has been the leader in innovating SIP home phone services and did a deal with Embarq earlier this year; they were also flirting with AT&T two years ago at CES.

So, tell me, how does this end?

- Doug

U-verse gets Voice

Doug Mohney — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:30:20 -0400

AT&T has launched a massive trial of its new U-verse voice service, making it available to all current U-verse IPTV customers in the San Antonio area.

The bundled offering now gives AT&T a "triple play" of voice, IPTV, and broadband. U-verse voice calls will be routed over the company's U-verse network rather than the "public" Internet.

New features to the U-verse voice services include the ability to combine VoIP service with AT&T wireless voice mail, an online management portal to manage call preferences and voice mail from a web browser, a click-to-call feature within a call history feature, and a "Locate Me" simultaneous ring on up to four phone numbers.

An unlimited voice plan (Canada and the U.S.) will cost $40 a month, while the Voice 1000 plan will cost $30 a month and include 1,000 calling minutes to anywhere in the U.S. Customers can add a second line to U-verse voice service for $20 a month.

AT&T estimates that U-verse currently has around 549,000 subscribers around the country; a relative drop in the bucket when compared to cable company subs or Verizon's 2 million FiOS customers.

For more:
- Network World reports on AT&T launching voice for U-verse

Related articles:
AT&T to bundle U-verse, VoIP
AT&T CallVantage: Dead or Rebranded?

Vonage Launches Pro

Doug Mohney — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:22:26 -0400

Vonage has launched Vonage Pro, a bundle of five components designed for the "on the go" VoIP user.

The Vonage Pro package includes a softphone client provided by CounterPath, Vonage Companion, to enable a desktop or laptop PC to simultaneously ring a home phone and the softphone. Other features of Companion include being able to make outbound calls on both home phone and soft phone at the same time, selective customer block, conference calling, personalized ring tones and call recording.

Other parts of the Vonage Pro bundle include unlimited residential voice service, 25 visual voice mail messages per month along with 25 411 directory assistance calls per moth and integration of Vonage Contact Center. Visual voicemail automatically transcribes voicemails to email or SMS text while contact center provides the ability to sync all contacts from different address books along with voice activated dialing and speed dial.

Cost of the Vonage Pro bundle for new customers will be $34.99 per month (plus tax and fees) with a first month thrown in free; existing Residential Premium Unlimited customers can add Vonage Pro for an additional $10 per month.

For more:
- Vonage Pro announcement

Related articles:
Vonage Near on Refinancing, New CEO
Vonage Spins Happy, But New Customer Subs Decline

AOL opens up, Yahoo outsources PSTN interfaces

Thu, 01 May 2008 06:59:56 -0400

AOL has introduced Open Voice APIs to allow third-party developers and VoIP device manufactures to integrate the AIM Call Out service into softphones, SIP-enabled hardware and cell phones with WiFi connectivity. Meanwhile, Yahoo was outsourcing its PSTN interworkings to Jajah.

AIM Call Out is a pay-as-you go outbound voice calling service built into AIM that lets users make calls to landlines and cell phones, with call credits purchased for as little as $5. The service complements the freebie PC-to-PC AIM Talk voice service. AOL hopes to facilitate real-time communications and rack up a few dollars in voice minutes.

Yahoo Messenger voice calls that touch the PSTN--either inbound or outbound--will now be handled by Jajah. Yahoo is closing down its in-house infrastructure and Jajah will now provide the services for Yahoo's for-pay "Phone In" and "Phone Out" features starting in the third quarter of 2008. Jajah will be responsible for the network infrastructure, providing customer support, and processing the payments.

Jajah brags it has 10 million users and will gain access to a potential audience of 97 million Yahoo Messenger users. The company also announced it is opening up its voice platform and offering strategic managed service solutions.

For more:
- AOL talks about AOL Open Voice APIs
- CNET blog on Jajah taking over Yahoo's PSTN infrastructure

AOL Opens Up, Yahoo Outsources PSTN interfaces

Doug Mohney — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:23:40 -0400

AOL has introduced Open Voice APIs to allow third-party developers and VoIP device manufactures to integrate the AIM Call Out service into softphones, SIP-enabled hardware and cell phones with Wi-Fi connectivity. Meanwhile, Yahoo was outsourcing its PSTN interworkings to Jajah.

AIM Call Out is a pay-as-you go outbound voice calling service built into AIM that lets users make calls to landline and cell phones, with call credits purchased for as little as $5. The service complements the freebie PC-to-PC AIM Talk voice service. AOL hopes to facilitate real-time communications and rack up a few dollars in voice minutes.

Yahoo Messenger voice calls that touch the PSTN - - either inbound or outbound – will now be handled by Jajah. Yahoo is closing down its in-house infrastructure and Jajah will now provide the services for Yahoo’s for-pay “Phone In” and “Phone Out” features starting in the third quarter of 2008. Jajah will be responsible for the network infrastructure, providing customer support, and processing the payments.

For more:
- AOL talks about AOL Open Voice APIs
- CNET blog on Jajah taking over Yahoo’s PSTN infrastructure