With so many companies assembling at the starting line for the race to mobile VOIP world domination, I wonder if we’re seeing a hurry-up-and-wait sort of thing. On the VOIP Service Blog read about mobile VOIP in a nutshell.

Tom Keating recently talked about how to pure VOIP providers like Vonage stack up against the cable and telco companies offering broadband Internet VOIP phone services.

In the article he compares pure VOIP providers like Vonage and Packet8 to telecos and cable companies like Verizon and Time Warner. What do consumers really want? Is cost always the bottom line or are people looking for brand trust, quality of service and reliability over the long haul? His assessment may surprise you.

Click here to read the complete article on his blog.

Who is Tom Keating? He owns the VOIP and Gadgets Blog and is CTO, VP and founder of TMC Labs, one of the leading sources for unbiased opinions and reviews in the VoIP, call center, datacom/telecom industries.

 

I got an email today from Carolyn Shuk from the Voxilla forum, a gal who’s been writing about VOIP for a few years.

In a recent post she talks about what happens when VOIP doesn’t work. Sigh. You can always make a call the old fashioned way.

“There’s just no limit to the rosy picture promoted by VoIP boosters. But what seems to get overlooked in the VoIP conversation is what people really want to do with it – I mean, other people, people who aren’t industry boosters. They just wanna make calls. Remember phone calls? Like “one ringy-dingy?”

Read When will VOIP stop batting 1000 

 

Hi and welcome to my blog about VOIP, voice over IP, Internet phone, broadband telephone, or whatever you feel inclined to call it. This is NOT a blog about women, or even necessarily about women who use VOIP services–I mean how boring is that. I called it The VOIP Girl because well I’m a gal. And I want to write about this industry. That’s about it. What really prompted me to get going however, is the fact that there are no women commentators on this subject. I’m curious to see if my perspective will be any different.

I want to write about how consumers (that’s you and me) are doing using VOIP.  I don’t necessarily care about IPOs, who’s buying who, and all that insider industry stuff. There are tons of blogs out there talking about all that. In fact I would say that is mostly what you’ll find when you look for VOIP commentary in the blogosphere. It’s great stuff, but really I’m interested in how ordinary folks are using Vonage, Skype, Gizmo, etc., and how is the free stuff stacking up against heavy hitter paid services.

Iristel is the first to bring HD VOIP to Canada.

Whoa…I don’t think I can handle this. We just recently enduring a long and arduous process of researching and purchasing our first “big” screen TV with…heaven help me…HD-high definition. You see in Canada it’s important to actually see the puck when the Canucks are playing. Apparently this is impossible on a 21″ tube TV with a pink stripe across the top of the screen. (Who knew?)

Maybe fellow bloggers can help me out here, but is HD VOIP something that consumers should consider when choosing a VOIP service, or is it more marketing lingo to work through? As I understand it, HD, high definition, or wideband VOIP refers to voice sampling at 16 kHz rather than at the measley 8 kHz supported by the PSTN and just about everyone else. If you capture voice with a wider spectrum of frequencies, the quality is better. They say it’s like comparing the quality of AM and FM radio. (See this article from voip-info.org).

Sounds good to me, but the catch is you have to have HD end to end in a VOIP call. It’s no good having 16 kHz at one end and 8 kHz at the other. In fact, 16 kHz downsampled to 8 kHz (which happens if you are calling a landline) may sound worse than 8 kHz from start to finish.

So I guess you can make the argument that HD or wideband VOIP is wasted on the masses when most calls travel partially over the PSTN or use VOIP networks using an 8 kHz voice capture process.

What folks are using VOIP for…FierceVOIP reports that last year over 614 billion national long distance minute were served, compared with 382 billion local and 82 billion international LD (iLocus report).

On the weekend, my husband had an important long distance call with a client. Downstairs, PhoneGnome had husband talking to the UK over VOIP using Gizmo credits. Upstairs, PhoneGnome had son talking local to his buddies. So easy. And we didn’t even realize that the whole thing panned out problem free until much later…no dropped calls or weird noises, and a whole dollar’s worth of Gizmo call out credits consumed. This is how VOIP should work…totally transparent.

As a follow up to an earlier post on Does VOIP Jump the Generational Gap, I agree with Jaanus that Grandmas can certainly use VOIP too (or Skype as the case may be). The fact that some are teaching the rest of us to use it is amazing. Although, of the b-zillion Skype users out there, the number of savvy Grandma’s is (I’m guessing) quite small.

That being said, I just can’t shake that feeling that while my Gran may be able to use it, there’s no question that I, or someone else will need to set it up for her. From buying the right headset, to downloading the software, to adding the kids to the contact list, and finally making the call.

But what the heck, it’s a good idea so I think I’ll put Skype through the Grandma test it and see how it goes. I’ll keep you posted.

Have you noticed that it’s raining mobile VOIP these days? Information Week asserts that VOIP has finally hit the mainstream wireless market and points to Fring, JaJah Mobile and Windows Mobile 6 as indicators who’ve all had new announcements this week. Truphone is also part of that crowd.

Tom Keating reviews Jajah Mobile on his blog. Check it out.

As a consumer, I’m happy there are options. But I’m also a consumer who’s not really ready. This mobile VOIP stuff means more decisions. What’s most important to me? Being in touch with my Skype contacts, my Google Talk buddies, my JaJah list or some other list somewhere? Do I like downloading an application to my phone or would I rather not–too finicky? Do I need multiple phone numbers for my cell phone? I like to use the Wi-Fi capability of my nifty Nokia N80i, but cruising around my usual haunts in town I’ve yet to find a free access point (obviously I need to get out more). The only place I’ve used mobile VOIP is from the comfort of my own desk.

So where have I been? Somewhere between snowball fights, Christmas shopping, and my other job I missed the fact that there’s another VOIPGirl in town. But thanks to some blogger friends, I’m up to speed.

Did you ever play nicky-nicky-nine-door as a kid? You know, like run up and ring a doorbell and then take off, hide behind a bush, and wait for something to happen? Kind of like Andy Abramson, Phoneyboy and Ted Wallingford. Ding, Dong VOIPGirl!

But hey, that’s all right. I think the more of us (gals) there are writing about this geeky stuff (VOIP), the better off you (guys) are. Why, between Carolyn Schuk over at Voxilla, Cate O’Malley and myself (and I consider myself honored to be in such company), we’re kind of like the women of web dialing, a trio of VOIP trialers, the chicks of click-to-call, the ladies of lose-your-landline …Well you get the idea.

So welcome Cate. The posts are flying over there at VOIP News so check her out!