As usual, Carolyn Schuk over at Voxilla writes a great post summarizing Skype’s appeal to business users. The bottom line is that today, Skype works well for a “small workgroup to increase productivity”, but it just doesn’t bring it for all around business-class communications.

When I first heard about Talkster back in October, I was intrigued. I participated marginally in their alpha program and thought their service “cool”. But at the time, it seemed to be raining mobile VOIP services like cats and dogs. Wasn’t Talkster just another “me-too” service? Today, with the launch of their new beta program, I had a chance to chat with CEO James Wanless, who set me straight on what Talkster is really all about. So, if you are an IT lead, manager or director of information systems in your company, or if you want to control the mobile devices your employees use, then you need to know about Talkster.

First, about the beta program. The beta is really designed to serve users a small slice of the potential of the Talkster network. It showcases two main pieces of functionality. 1) enable moble phones to call instant messenger with voice services such as MSN, Gizmo Project, and Google Talk. 2) enables long distance calling at substantially reduced long distance and roaming rates.

Talkster services operates on any regular mobile phone that has a web browser. The beta takes minutes to set up and you don’t have to install software on your phone or computer. Basically, you create an online account with the names and email addresses/numbers of your MSN, Gizmo Project and Google Talk buddies. Next, you use the browser on you mobile phone to log in to your Talkster account. You’ll see your contact list with a presence icon beside each name indicating if they are online or not. Select a name and you make a voice over IM (VoIM) call to that person free of charge. Alec Saunders did a nice demo on his Blackberry a while back with some good screen shots. Tom Keating in today’s post also has some good observations.

But while the consumer side of the Talkster network is ready now, the goal is comprensive and consolidated control over mobile communications services and devices for the enterprise. In fact, Talkster styles itself as a business mobility company. They’re not in the race for the cheapest phone call, what James Wanless calls the “race to zero”. “That’s not a great business model”, he says. “Talkster provides a contact centric service for mobile business users. Phone numbers, IM addresses, even SIP URls are all consolidated into one interface. Users just have to choose by name and not worry about how the call is placed. But on the enterprise level, companies can manage people on their cell phones out in the field and bring cell phone usage in line with company policy.” In the business version of the product to be released this spring, Wanless says Talkster will provide these essential tools so that the enterprise can manage their mobile users.

The Talkster beta service is open to users worldwide at www.talkster.com. Enterprises interested in the forthcoming enterprise service can send an email to enterprise@talkster.com.

We just had our first winter storm blow through. The result was twenty-seven hours of no power. After the first two hours my son proclaimed the most boring day of his life (no computer, no Nintendo). In the midst of trying almost every home VOIP solution under the sun, I’ve still hung onto my landline. Good thing too. Even my cell phone battery died. Of course, my PhoneGnome didn’t mind. Without power or Internet connection, landline calls worked just fine thanks.

As a little postscript to that Bye Bye Vonage post, I discovered that while Vonage customer support is 247, if you want to CANCEL their service you have to call during business hours (between 9 and 4:55 Eastern). I’m on Pacific time so it took me three tries. Guess they don’t want to make it too convenient if you plan on jumping ship!

But they were very polite, and even offered me free service for a few months to see if they could fix my voice quality problems. I was tempted, but like most people, I don’t want to spend my time friggin’ around with tech support trying to fix it. It ’s not good use of my time. I want it just TO WORK.

I opted to pay the $50 cancellation fee and just move on…

Is VOIP a generational thing? When I told my parents about my great scheme to use VOIP for my business line and long distance calling, Mom gave me that worried look that says “Are you sure that’s not illegal?” You should try it, I cry! Vonage, my service of choice at the time, was only $19.95 a month. A simple calculation on my phone bill told me I was spending more that that on long distance every month, so it seemed a no brainer.

Then Dad says, why don’t you just use 10-10-YAK? Only 5 cents a minute.

That’s what my parents use. YAK is a dial-around service you can use for long distance calling. The charges appear on your regular phone bill so there’s no subscriber contract to deal with.

But Dad (I’m deflated now), YAK isn’t VOIP, and VOIP is COOL. VOIP is the WAVE of the FUTURE…OK well whatever.

Now I don’t know if it’s just my parents, but the idea of only paying for what they use on a regular old telephone makes total sense to them. Hooking up a Vonage phone adaptor to their PC and broadband modem to make phone calls does not.

But my Dad did get me thinking about this question of unlimited calling vs. pay as you go. If you ask the folks at SIPphone Gizmo Project, they’ll say that unlimited plans won’t save you money. Only paying for minutes you actually use will.

“A calling plan that involves unlimited calling is almost never in the best interests of the consumer. When you just pay for what you consume, you end up paying far less.”

It grieves me, but lets do the math. At 5 cents a minute, I would have to spend about 400 minutes calling long distance calls (6 1/2 hours) to break even with my $20 plus tax Vonage charges for unlimited calling. I spend way less than 400 minutes a month talking long distance, so (a) I was paying way to much at my telco before for long distance, and (b) I can do way better than Vonage.

Most VOIP long distance rates are around 2 cents a minute or less, so for me paying as I go makes sense (400 minutes at 2 cents/minute is $8)!

 

Well, after eight uneventful months, Vonage and I are parting ways.  Perhaps not the most auspicious way to start off a blog about VoIP but I’m being honest here. I’m not going to go into a big rant. Flame throwing just isn’t my style. I don’t hate Vonage. The service just wasn’t financially making sense for me. The phone usage in my business isn’t enough to warrant a fixed monthly plan, even one as low as $24.99. Plus in my area the call quality wasn’t pristine. And some people do get excellent voice over Vonage. But I generally experienced crackling and lag on most calls.

If anyone has comments on Vonage quality in their area, let me know.

From the Vonage forums, it’s clear that call quality varies tremendously from region to region. My advice is that if the VOIP service, Vonage, SunRocket or whatever, isn’t what you expect, try something else. The VOIP marketplace is growing by leaps and bounds, and as a consumer you should shop around.

But now that I’ve done Vonage, it’s time to move on over to other VOIP solutions. Skype, SightSpeed, and Gizmo are the free ones on my radar and make the most sense for me given my business.

Over at Digital Media Update, Sightspeed’s Peter Csathy blogs about a deal inked between Google/YouTube and Digital Music Group Inc. DMGI will supply YouTube with  a bzillion hours worth of classic TV shows and video content and YouTube will, of course, make their money back through advertising on the “watch” pages associated with the DMGI content. Peter says this is a deal that will be closely watched by all major content providers and distributors. Could movies, music, and prime time be in our not too distant future? Show us the money!

Thanks to Tom Keating for alerting me to Skype’s new call transfer feature. Tom points out that this feature that smooths the way for Skype as a practical business phone system.

Call transfer is available as part of Skype 3.5 BETA so it’s still in trial mode. You won’t get this version by updating Skype from the Help menu. You need to go here and download the beta.

Following on Peter Csathy’s post about how he uses SightSpeed for business and personal communication, Andy shares six tips for making video calls. In a nutshell, 1) Get over it, your hairdo’s not that bad 2) Get a hat, 3) Come as you are, be comfortable, 4) Have good lighting, 5) Learn to multitask on camera, 6) Don’t worry about multitasking on camera, it’s not considered rude.

Thanks Andy!

If you are thinking about trying Asterisk open source PBX in your home or small business, I suggest you read Tom Keating on Trixbox 2.0, “the easiest way to get Asterisk up and running in just minutes”. 

Now chances are at this point you probably already know more than a little about what Asterisk is and why you need it. But, if you’re like me and need to start at the beginning, start with the Trixbox wiki (formerly Asterisk@Home) on voip-info.org.