Hassle-Free VoIP
Despite VoIP's inroads with consumers, I've long believed a major adoption roadblock has been the need to have an ATA (clarification: an adaptor that plugs into your high-speed modem) within the home. It adds a barrier to entry for consumers thinking about abandoning the PSTN their traditional phone system for the feature-rich world of Internet telephony. There are, however, some encouraging signs this problem may disappear soon. During a panel this morning at VON Canada, executives from Bell Canada and Primus Canada both talked about what I like to describe as Easy VoIP, or EV. With Bell Digital Voice and Primus Home Phone service, there are no ATAs involved. All the consumers has to do is sign up for the service and - voila - Easy VoIP with all the online bells and whistles you'd ever want. Bell Digital Voice, which was launched last year, is carried over Bell's IP network with the ATA located within the central office. Primus' Home Phone service, which was quietly unveiled recently, strikes me as a bit of a hybrid because it combines the circuit-switch world with all the cool VoIP features. It complements Primus' Talk Broadband service that uses an ATA. If VoIP is going to become a widely-accepted consumers service, the ATA needs to disappear. Of course, the cablecos are still installing ATAs, which involve a truck-roll, but you have to believe that over time, they'll figure out how to eliminate the need for in-house equipment.
Tags: VoIP, Bell, VON, Primus
April 4th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
Mark, what are the “rich features” of VoIP you are refering to? I don't see any advantage (other than price) of having VoIP at home especially if you are not in control of your ATA. The only additional feature you might get is voicemail to email. Alternatively I can take my ATA and plug it into any network anywhere in the world and still have my phone number. How would I do that if my ATA is located at the central office?
As a more advanced user I'd rather be in complete control of my ATA so that I can provide whatever features I want using a system like Asterisk (which I do). Hence the reason I'm with one of the very few providers in Canada that allow one to use their own ATA equipment.
April 5th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
Both Mark and Tim seem to suggest that VoIP is required to deliver voice mail via email. Certainly you must grant that it is not difficult at all for a hosted voice mail service provider to offer this service. Also PhoneGnome has demonstrated that a CPE is capable of doing it as well. One can analogously fabricate an answering machine that has only traditional phone interface, but can forward a new voice mail as an outgoing email. As I have claimed before, I have not seen a single feature that “requires” VoIP, save the place shifting that Tim talked about.
Indeed the service offerings from Bell, Primus and Covad loudly proclaim that no new features/services can be derived because the voice has been packetized.
April 5th, 2006 at 4:22 pm
VoIP is also a pain for some home and business security systems.
I used to follow this blog just for VoIP news but now I prefer the other topics as I'm not impressed by the quality I've seen to date. Price is right, and maybe the traditional guys will one day lower the price a bit.