Andy posts long and loud on AT&T’s new Unity Plan: unlimited free calling between AT&T mobile and landline customers for a fixed price per month. While the plan excludes mobile roaming, international calling, and CallVantage services (the AT&T VoIP offering), he thinks they will be blended into the mix soon enough. This should prove troubling for companies like Vonage. In fact, why use Vonage when I can have unlimited mobile AND landline calling for a fixed price on one monthly bill?
Don’t you get that feeling? Andy Abramson lists his six reasons why Cisco and Apple will play nicely together in the end. He’s probably right. Hey, maybe I hope he’s right…a Linksys box that plays iTunes? Hmmmm. I think those execs must get a kick out of everyone getting in a lather over this. Â
I was following the thread started by PhoneBoy and SightSpeed’s Peter Csathy about the obvious advantages of communicating with someone in person. Facial expressions, hand gestures, and body language are huge non-verbal cues that say a lot. But, when face time isn’t an option, then real-time video calling (using SightSpeed of course) is the next best thing. Peter himself runs his Berkeley-based team from San Diego, and couldn’t do so effectively without SightSpeed. PhoneBoy agrees and thinks that SightSpeed rocks, “Almost like being there”.
But, I’m curious to know if the folks who use SightSpeed today are making spontaneous or pre-planned calls. I confess that when I use it, it’s usually a planned thing. I’ll email or text someone and say, “OK to SightSpeed you now?”, or IÂ pre-arrange a call at a certain time.
My guess is that live video from the desktop is still so new that people hesitate at “surprising” someone with a video call. Unless of course you’re The SightSpeed Guy. You may want to check out his latest blog post. He’s wearing a tie. Must be the staff Christmas lunch.
Luca F. gets into why businesses must factor click-to-call into their marketing plan to succeed online. I agree.
In fact, I think that click-to-call is turning into a must-have feature for the new VoIPÂ services and applications you see popping up everywhere.
Laptop magazine has a review of Fring, Talkster, Nimbuzz and Barablu. These four apps turn your good old cell phone into an internet phone and more. Of the four, Nimbuzz is new to me and Barablu I haven’t tried yet. Fring and Talkster I’ve used and quite like, although I think having a great handset makes all the difference. I wouldn’t bother with any of these if I didn’t have the Nokia N80i to test with.
The review does a good job of capturing the typical setup process for all applications, and gives both the pros and cons of usability, call quality and the like. Author Joanna Stern points out that “regardless of which mobile VoIP service you use, you’re going to need an unlimited data plan, which costs anywhere from $5.99 per month (T-Mobile) to $24.99 (Cingular)”.
Edited May 17, 2007:
James Wanless of Talkster clarified for me that their service in fact does not require a data plan:
One thing that I wanted to point out to your readers though is that Talkster doesn’t require an unlimited data plan. In fact, quite the opposite. Once you have selected who you want to talk to, the voice portion of the call travels over the regular cellular voice channels and uses your “in plan” minutes. You can always count on the voice channel to be available and the quality to be consistent or at least a known quantity which we feel is the right approach given the point of evolution of cellular networks today.
Thanks James
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…
Truphone, one of the first to enable mobile Internet phone calls over Wi-Fi connections, now includes free calls to and from Google Talk users. Here’s a video from their press blog showing Truphone and Google Talk in action. I like this demo because it is low tech, sans marketing shtick, and shows someone actually using the product.
A great example, blogger style, of how video can really communicate the nuts and bolts of a new product or feature. For lots of people, a free 30-day trial isn’t enough. They want to see it before they try it.
Truphone announced its beta software for Wi-Fi-enabled Nokia mobile handsets in September 2006. Currently Truphone is available for Nokia’s E60, E61, E70 and N80 Internet Edition handsets. Truphone for other handsets including Windows Mobile devices will follow soon.
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This caught my eye today. AvantiMobile in the UK is marketing something called Least Cost Routing for mobile phones. When you make a call, the Avantimobile application in your phone checks to see if it can be routed cheaply through their VOIP network. If it can’t, the call goes through the regular cell network. You don’t have to do a thing except dial. It sounds simple and I like that.
Trying to absorb all my choices when it comes to new VOIP handsets, services and applications makes me feel like I need a flow chart just to make a call. Just look at Andy’s list of what he uses day to day!
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.
Before you sign on to a VOIP service or plan, make sure that your broadband connection is up to snuff.
Voice Over IP (VOIP) needs a certain amount of bandwidth to be usable. Bandwidth is the amount of digital data that can be transmitted in a certain time period.
In general, an upload speed of 88 Kbps is recommended, although each VOIP service provider will have their own requirements.
You can test your current broadband Internet connection (provided through a cable or DSL service) using the free web tools. Here’s a couple to try:
