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VoIP Issues
- A Great Solution, VoIP Has Some Problems
Over the past few years, VoIP has assumed a growing presence within the telecom landscape as the Internet becomes an efficient and cost-effective way to communicate with people around the world. With new and disruptive players such as Vonage and Skype leading the way, and cable companies using VoIP service as a competitive weapon to lure customers away from telephone companies, there is no denying that VoIP is carving out a solid foothold. That said, VoIP still has faces many challenges before it can become a mainstream technology. Despite the promise of lower costs and a variety of value-added features, there remains several major hurdles that must be addressed before consumers are completely comfortable with using VoIP as opposed to plain-old-telephone service (POTS) provided by telephone carriers. Perhaps the biggest challenge facing VoIP is concern about 911 services. As much as VoIP service providers have tried to deal with the issue by offering e911 service, it is still far from being as reliable or as accurate as 911 service provided by telephone carriers. As important, there is a perception among consumers that 911 is not as good if you have VoIP service. In Canada, for example, the issue was thrust into the spotlight when a family in Calgary made a 911 call using their VoIP service provided by Comwave. Unfortunately, the address that Comwave had on file was the family’s previous home in Mississauga, Ont., which is where the ambulance was mistakenly dispatched. Another issue being faced by VoIP service providers is ensuring customers with high quality of service. While VoIP technology has improved with increased reliability and enhanced features, service providers are still dependent on the Internet and ISPs to carry their traffic. In an ideal world, the flow of traffic would not be issue if everyone’s data were handled on a level playing field. In reality, however, this isn’t the case as ISPs such as Time-Warner, Comcast and Rogers have started to throttle traffic to “manage” their networks more efficiently. While no one talks about it openly, this means higher priority is given to e-mail and high-traffic Web site traffic, while data belonging to VoIP and P2P applications can be pushed to the “slower lanes”, especially during peak traffic periods. Mind you, Calgary-based Shaw Communications, however, is more than happy to ensure quality of service for VoIP if you pay them $10/month on top of your high-speed Internet bill. QoS looms as a major issue because consumers are not at all tolerant of inadequate service. As a result, many dissatisfied customers quickly switch back to traditional phone service or go to another VoIP service provider. This explains why churn is so high at companies such as Vonage, which loses about 3% of its customers every quarter. The QoS will remain front and center as the battle for Net Neutrality – the concept that all Internet traffic is treated equally - becomes more heated in places such as the U.S. and Canada. notes
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