WhichVoIP announces International Partnership

WhichVoIP.com, a leading resource for comparing residential and business VoIP service provider solutions based in Seattle USA, today announced a Partnership with South African local site WhichVoIP.co.za, to manage their Opportunities in Africa.

The partnership will see the International site leverage off the local operation to extend services into African countries, and allow for Business and Residential users to look toward WhichVoIP to connect them with Solution Providers in their local vicinity. 

We have always seen significant opportunity in Africa for the benefits and cost savings that VoIP brings to users and been eager to formally extend services to these markets. WhichVoIP.co.za will help us achieve this goal a lot quicker and provide the in-country knowledge and expertise to help best serve African users. Our Values and Missions are aligned – we’re after the same things, which is always a strong foundation in a partnership. We’re encouraged and very excited by what the SA guys are doing so we look forward to the Partnership and ultimately helping African users benefit from VoIP technology", says Mike B, Director at WhichVoIP.com.

Commenting on the Partnership, local site founder, Mitchell Barker said “We are proud to be associated with WhichVoIP.com who lead the way in online VoIP Provider research, comparison and rating services. Each day thousands of visitors from all over the world point their browser to WhichVoIP.com to assist them with their Technology Evaluations, thus easing the Decision making process. The idea of collating competitive information and demystifying the technology by presenting this in a relevant and simple to understand way, means that VoIP Value Proposition becomes better understood, which in turn results in a quicker adoption”.

WhichVoIP.co.za allows users investigate VoIP technology in South Africa, Evaluate providers through a Research Report and Comparison Tool, and produces an accurate Quotation that features an ROI (return on investment) calculation with indicative fixed and variable costs for their chosen VoIP provider. WhichVoIP then close the loop by facilitating an introduction between provider and customer.

The Site also boasts a repository for all things VoIP, and a Forum for users to interact, as well as follow their chosen VoIP providers in the News Aggregation section. There is a Directory of credible VoIP providers, and interesting Articles and Guides.

http://www.whichvoip.co.za/index.php?option=com_blog&view=blog&Itemid=6 

WhichVoIP.co.za goes FREE

WhichVoIP.co.za goes FREE!

WhichVoIP.co.za, South Africa’s largest VoIP research, reporting and comparison website now offers all their services at no charge to web users.

Through a research report and comparison tool on the site, users are able to evaluate providers, and produce an accurate quotation that features an ROI (return on investment) calculation with indicative fixed and variable costs for each chosen VoIP provider; in order to effectively investigate and evaluate VoIP technology in South Africa.

WhichVoIP.co.za then facilitates the introduction between provider and customer, completing the cycle from investigation to contact.

“Our aim is to become the major resource for all things VoIP in South Africa”, said Mitchell Barker, founder of www.whichvoip.co.za

“The use of the World Wide Web is a common place in obtaining information when making purchasing decisions and therefore, we decided to make all of the services available at no cost to our audience. We want people to know that we are serious about delivering on what the market needs.”

Aside from the reports, WhichVoIP.co.za brings all disparate VoIP information and news relevant to South Africa together, through an easy to navigate interface, presented in a manner which aims to take the guesswork out of the technology; as well as who is offering what in the market.

WhichVoIP.co.za has enjoyed organic growth over the past few months, and have an exciting roadmap planned in terms of site functionality going forward.

“We currently have over 25 common VoIP providers on the site, and we’re growing rapidly. We invite other VoIP providers to follow, engage with us to see what opportunities are available for partnering with us.”

http://www.whichvoip.co.za/index.php?option=com_blog&view=comments&pid=165&Itemid=6

VoIP is a Commodity

VoIP 2.0 – Part 1

VoIP is a commodity. Don’t believe me? I would be surprised to hear of a company who hasn’t been offered this technology in one form or another. I mean really, hard VoIP users topped the 100m mark based on Research conducted in UK and released in 2010. In South Africa, Bred pre 2005 -legalized then, 6 years on, and VoIP is more of a topical subject today than ever before.

The only difference now is that VoIP has a new face. There used to be a clear distinction between VoIP, IP Telephony and Unified Communications. Going forward, its going to be about Users (not devices) and Applications (not Features).

I am terming this piece as VoIP 2.0 with the intent of highlighting what I believe to be ‘Survival mode for VoIP’. Those not moving with the times will struggle to retain their customers until they can wrap enough value around what it is they are offering. The market is ready for Providers to step up to the plate.

So what trends in this “2 dot 0” acronym? In my view, the “2.0” wave is about Innovation, to continue re-inventing yourself, focus on changing the user experience, and adding value to your customers by addressing their individual and specific communication requirements. Fundamentally, The normal VoIP Value Proposition just doesn’t cut it anymore.

VoIP 2.0 is not going to be about Cheap Minutes - VoIP 2.0 is going to be about Application. Cheap(er) minutes will be the value-add and not the primary reason for adoption of the technology.

A few examples of this could be (or a few examples of VoIP Applied, versus VoIP LCR (Least Cost Routing)

Connectivity via VoIP = Commodity.            
Survivability through VoIP = Application.

VoIP onto Cellphones = Commodity.             
Mobility, Single Number Identity, Always being Contactable = Application.

VoIP conferencing = Commodity.                      
Managed and Recorded Conferencing, Voice and Video; with Collaboration between users – on the fly = Application.

Customers have started to realize that Productivity gains, Improved Efficiency, and Seamless Contactability through VoIP are now tangible measurables. This isn’t “pie in the sky” stuff anymore. Unified Communications can be ‘general’ technology, but when mapped into a customer’s organization in a way that positively affects how that company does business – well that’s then you start to realize these benefits.

The Key differentiators in a market with these dynamics will be experience, and flexibility. I would like to think that there aren’t too many Major providers that bring both to the Market. Understanding who is and who will be positioned in the future - One thing is for sure – I don’t foresee more than a small handful of players in the next 3 years. Simply said, the Mammoths will continue to growth, certainly through acquisition of smaller players.

However, this doesn’t mean that those will be the only identities in the market. Building, Licensing, and Managing a VoIP Network simply isn’t a viable option anymore. Interconnect Agreements and Network Licenses are hard to come by, they’re expensive, and they eat away at the bottom line. This will present an opportunity for smaller companies to get involved and provision white-label services from the Major operators.

We will see an abundance of New Age technologies backed by Carrier Class Networks in many forms - VoIP driven applications and Business Models that will take us into the New Era, such as Hosted PBX as a Premise Based alternative, the move to open applications embedded into Common Interfaces which will tie in with Mobility, and last but certainly not least, Integration with common Business Applications.

At the end of the day, VoIP Providers need to start changing in an adapt or die Comms world. The next wave of Communications is on us, and in our Market, we’re seeing a lot more Small Businesses with Big Business requirements.

Carrier pre-select regulations delayed

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) has pushed back implementation of phase one of carrier pre-select (CPS) regulations to 30 November, more than a year after final regulations were published.

Last September, ICASA finalised the regulations, which will allow consumers to choose which operator they want to use to carry a call. However, ICASA says in a statement that actual CPS will now only kick off in November.

According to Ellipsis Regulatory Solutions, fixed-line operators had to provide CPS within two months of the regulations coming into effect, while mobile operators have to provide CPS within four months of the first request being received.

Carrier pre-select has been in the pipeline since December 2008, when ICASA issued draft regulations and invited public comment.

ICASA says it engaged with the industry on progress of the implementation of phase one and decided to “develop an industry-led CPS code of conduct/practice to be completed in September 2011”.
A general notice containing full details of these developments will be published in the Government Gazette in due course, it says.

More choice

The purpose of CPS regulations is to promote competition by giving end-users the ability to choose which telecommunications carrier they prefer when making calls, ICASA says.

In practice, the regulations will allow a Telkom customer, for example, to select Neotel to carry a particular call, potentially benefiting from better rates. Consumers will choose which operator to use by first dialling an access code when calling a number.

Globally, regulations governing CPS have been accompanied by local loop unbundling (LLU), a highly-contested and long-awaited development in the local telecoms market.

LLU has been on the cards for the past decade, but has yet to become a reality in SA. In May 2007, then communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri set a 2011 deadline to free the last mile, a commitment the department repeated last November.

ICASA recently released a discussion document on LLU. The regulator says it will have regulations in place by November to facilitate open access to the last mile.

- ITWeb
http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=154:it-governance-and-risk-management

New Telkom Tariffs effective 01 August 2011

The last time we reported on the movement around the new Telkom Tariffs was a few weeks ago, and so much has happened since then that we almost sure that this has been forgotten. My overall thought on the matter is that its disappointing that there isnt an overall decrease in the cost of deploying and utilising Voice Services with Telkom, but it is encouraging that there is a Decrease in the Voice Rates which shows that the Market is going in the right direction!

Here is a quick summary of the changes that affect Basic Business users.

Telkom increases fixed-line rentals
http://www.whichvoip.co.za/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=28&func=view&catid=6&id=246

As initially Reported, the Fixed-Line Rental and Installation Fees have been increased.
A Business Analog Line which used to cost R 152.63, will now set you back R 168.28. The Hunting Facility per line has also been increased from R 10.77 per line to R 11.48.

Telkom to cut local call rateshttp://www.whichvoip.co.za/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=28&func=view&catid=6&id=247

Local Calls (0-50km)        drop from R 0.38 to R 0.37 - connection fee of R 0.50
National Calls (0-50km)   drop from R 0.57 to R 0.50 - connection fee of R 0.50
Mobile Calls                     drop from R 1.29 to R 1.23 - connection fee of R 1.23
Calls to VoIP                     varies per VoIP provider, but a drop in the connection fee to R 0.50
                                          (Cost to call is between R 0.53 and R 0.73)

The New Telkom Pricelist can be downloaded (PDF) from the following link:
http://www.telkom.co.za/general/pricelist/downloads/tarifflist_Aug11.pdf

The Previous Call Rate Pricing is still accessible via the following link:
http://www.telkom.co.za/common/pricelist/prices/local/customer_to_automatic_exh.html

What's Next For Skype?

It’s been an eventful last two months for Skype. Shortly after Microsoft made the biggest deal in its history with the acquisition of Skype for $8.5 billion, the latter suffered a massive outage. To make matters worse, Efim Bushmanov - a Russian freelance researcher claimed that he has successfully been able to reverse engineer the official Skype desktop implementation in an attempt to make the service open source.

The Big Daddy of Internet Telephony subsequently announced breakthrough partnerships with Facebook, Comcast and Telus. Microsoft patented ‘‘Legal Intercept‘ thereby alleviating privacy concerns that the company could secretly intercept, monitor and record Skype calls is stoking privacy concerns.

So, what’s next for Skype?

CEO Tony Bates is bullish that the Microsoft deal will be completed by October this year. He believes that one billion Skype ‘end points’ is no longer a distant dream and hinted that Skype is open to the idea of using in-call advertisements, as the company attempts to boost its revenue.

The Microsoft-Skype deal has received the required regulatory clearance in the United States but it still awaits a green signal from European regulatory authorities. Bates said that Skype would retain its original brand and it would constitute its own division at Microsoft. He believes Microsoft will help bring in ’strong commitment’ to the brand.

Bates isn’t averse to the idea of in-call advertising in Skype. He claims that since the average length of a video call has gone up, there’s room to introduce new opportunities through advertising. And it isn’t just playing advertisements, it could even be sharing ads across participants in a Skype call. In March, Skype started rolling out unobtrusive ads from major sponsors. It was then claimed that these ads ‘won’t interrupt your Skype experience.’ With Microsoft at the helm now, you never know what’s coming next.

Skype already has a strong foothold in the smartphone user segment. The company is now trying to bring goodies of the Internet world to the TV segment. Skype is pre-installed on 50 million TVs and companies like Comcast will begin offering Skype video calling to customers next year. Of course, monetization still remains a major challenge. There’s no denying that Skype needs to find ways to better monetize free calling and video chats – whether in-call advertising is the way to do it, I’m not so sure.

Did you like this post? TheTelecomBlog.com publishes daily news, editorial, thoughts, and controversial opinion – you can subscribe by: RSS (click here), or email (click here).

Written by: Gaurav Kheterpal. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.comby: RSS,Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

http://www.whichvoip.co.za/index.php?option=com_blog&view=comments&pid=159&Itemid=6

Stating the obvious

Telkom finally concedes it's too big to react quickly to market changes but this reality check comes too late to make a difference.

 

By Nicola Mawson, ITWeb senior journalist.

Telkom has finally woken up and smelled the roses, admitting to a conundrum that analysts have been pointing out for years.

The telecoms company, which for decades had a monopoly over SA's communications and still dominates the fixed-line market, has admitted it's too big and cumbersome to react to the changing landscape quickly enough.

Recently appointed CEO Nombulelo “Pinky” Moholi this week admitted the telco has “neither the agility to seize market opportunities nor the ability to absorb competitive pressures ad infinitum”. A “step change” in the way it invests and operates is vital, she declared.

Consequences

Now that local loop unbundling is finally on the cards for November, the company is umming and ahhing over what implications letting go of the last mile will have on its operations.

Duh! For years, analysts have been pointing out that the huge “carrier” isn't nimble enough to turn around when the tide changes. Telkom has missed the boat several times by not reacting quickly enough to changes in the competitive landscape.

Moholi's comments, that Telkom needs to become more agile to cope in an ever-changing world, are a breath of fresh air. The telco must focus on areas that will aid revenue growth, and invest strategically instead of chucking money at ventures that burn cash, such as Multi-Links.

Telkom admits it needs to increase volumes to bolster revenue, and it will have to become more competitive to do so. Voice revenue, its traditional mainstay, is on the decline, a trend that's unlikely to reverse anytime soon.

Moholi wants the Independent Communications Authority of SA to back off, and stop regulating retail prices, as well as wholesale prices. If Telkom gets its way, it will be able to be much more competitive, supposedly benefiting end-users.

Too late
However, Telkom should have started worrying about competition almost two decades ago, instead of panicking about it now when the sector has moved on to a point where people are questioning the company's relevance.

Competition in the telecoms space arrived in 1994 when mobile operators were given the go-ahead to provide services. Telkom should have made a move then, but it didn't have to: it had a 50% stake in Vodacom, essentially a licence to print money.

In 2009, Telkom sold Vodacom, raking in a massive R40 billion profit. It took the company over a year to come up with the idea of competing with its former subsidiary by launching its own mobile arm, 8ta.

No-one expects 8ta to be a raging success and shake up the cellular market, and Telkom isn't surprised at the market's expectations. Judging by its previous well thought out, but badly executed growth strategies – Multi-Links, Telkom Media – the company has a lot of work to do to get 8ta right.

The cellular company will also need a lot of investment – R6 billion over five years – and is going up against competitors that have the market sewn up, and pockets deep enough to crush any newbies.
8ta isn't expected to be cash-generative until 2015, and until then the market can only hope it proves to be as successful as Telkom promises.

Missed opportunities

The combination of the cellphone company and Telkom's fixed-line operations should be a recipe for success in the converged space.

However, Telkom's competitors already have a head start in the converged space. Altech, Reunert and other competing telcos are battling it out to own market share in a world that is moving rapidly to IP-based communications where voice, data and video will meet on a converged platform.

Telkom still has to spend money on its networks to get rid of ancient switches and replace them with next-generation IP technology.

In fact, Telkom should have started rethinking its strategy three years ago when Altech took the late communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri to court to force the department to allow value-added network service providers to self-provision.

Altech's win paved the way for more than 400 value-added network services (VANS) to self-provide through electronic network services licences, instead of on-selling Telkom's services. Matsepe-Casaburri had doggedly opposed this concept since September 2004.

It didn't act then to mitigate any competitive effects. Instead, it sat back while companies started self-provisioning.

Collectively, companies such as Altech and Reunert are becoming serious forces to contend with. Neotel, which launched four years ago, has yet to turn into a believable second national operator. Despite the fact that it has yet to turn a profit, or garner the threatened 15% of market share, Neotel is eating into Telkom's profit.

This week, Telkom noted both Neotel and VANS “gained further traction,” hacking away at its share of the interconnection revenue pie.

On the contrary
Now that local loop unbundling (LLU) is finally on the cards for November, the company is umming and ahhing over what implications letting go of the last mile will have on its operations. Moholi called LLU a “major” risk.

Telkom should have started being concerned about LLU when it was first mooted five years ago. In fact, the clever thing to have done would have been to get the regulator to approve a plan that would have created a separate infrastructure company to host the last mile.

Problem solved. Telkom could have earned money, indirectly, by renting out the copper, and used that income to upgrade its infrastructure. Then it wouldn't be sitting with the worry of copper theft and outdated switches.

Instead, Telkom's full of arguments: there is no need to free the fixed last mile, the process isn't clear, November just isn't doable...

Consequently, the matter is likely to drag on for many more years while it and the regulator face off over a plethora of issues. And in the meantime? Smaller telcos that need access to the copper infrastructure to compete against Telkom have to find alternative solutions, or spend a fortune putting their own fibre into the ground.

Telkom can't have its cake and eat it. It can't suggest that the regulator back off and allow it to become more competitive while at the same time stand in the way of allowing more competition through LLU, a process that is years overdue.

Yes, Telkom is important to SA's economy, as Moholi took pains to point out this week, but if it doesn't get its strategy right now, it won't be relevant in five years' time. Too much is changing too fast.

- IT-Web

http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=44573:stating-the-obvious&catid=267

Hacking threat costs VOIP users

The growing move to IP-based telephony is costing SA's economy millions, as hackers are exploiting networks that aren't properly secured, a threat that will increase as more people move to voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP).

Within the next two to three years, all communication in SA is expected to be IP-based, and companies are increasingly moving to VOIP. However, hackers are taking advantage of the step-change, and a local company recently found itself with a R100 000 bill resulting from fraudulent calls made over a weekend.

Hacking into a VOIP system is as simple as exploiting the Internet, say market commentators. Yet, while companies secure data to limit the threat of having it stolen, people don't pay as much attention to their IP-based telephony, an oversight that could cost firms millions, potentially forcing them to shut shop.

Du Pont SA CEO Graeme Victor says hackers from outside SA are increasingly hacking into VOIP systems, and companies that don't secure their lines are facing huge bills. He explains that a small Johannesburg-based company recently ended up with a R100 000 invoice, and the hackers only stopped because the company had reached its credit limit.

Victor explains hackers exploit open ports, which are accessed through the Internet. The issue is becoming a big concern in the industry, he says. “More and more people are talking about it.”

Companies that don't put in security measures will bear the brunt, because the client carries the cost of the call, says Victor. “Once they find an open IP range, they make calls to their heart's desire.”

With the growing move to IP-based telephony, Victor expects the number of companies vulnerable to hacks to increase. He has heard of some companies forking out millions in phone bills because of hacking. “The numbers can be horrific.”

Massive concern
VOIP hacking is a “massive” issue and is as much of a problem as Internet attacks, says Vox Orion MD Jacques du Toit. He adds hackers break into systems on a daily basis, and companies that don't secure their networks will end up footing the bill for breaches.

Du Toit says competition is increasing in the VOIP space, and the “new kids on the block” will be more vulnerable to security breaches than those that have already put measures into place to limit losses.

Companies could easily lose thousands of rands because international calls vary between R1.50 and R12 a minute, says Du Toit. He says hackers could sit on the line for hours running up bills.

Du Toit explains the session initiation protocol (SIP), used to carry voice over the Internet, is open to abuse. He says hackers look up SIPs and exploit them if they aren't properly secured.

Vox Orion has been aware of VOIP hacking since the technology's early days, and has put systems into place that monitor unusual trends, cutting off traffic that is unusual and saving clients cash, says Du Toit. “You can never 100% prevent it if it's a breach on the customer's side, but you can limit damage.”
Du Toit anticipates companies will start requesting that providers put measures in place to limit potential breaches, which will push costs up.

Counting the cost
Andy Openshaw, sales, marketing and business development director at ECN Telecommunications, says hacking is “on the up and up”, and VOIP companies try and stay a step ahead of the hackers, but this is becoming more technically advanced and more difficult to prevent.

Openshaw says network operators will have to invest in security, which will push up costs, but the additional expense will be worth it in the long run, rather than facing the risk of a company that can't pay its bill. “It does come with a price tag.”

ECN and its customer base are regularly subjected to hacking attempts, says Openshaw. The company has developed a number of systems and solutions to protect itself and its customers from attacks, he says.

Hackers can cost companies millions, and could easily run up a bill of R600 000 over a weekend, says Openshaw. “As the hackers advance, the complexity of the measures needed to ensure you remain safe from hacking increases,” which adds costs to network operators, he says.

Openshaw says hacking is an increasing threat. “The hacking of a network becomes a challenge to the hacker, as well as a financial windfall when successful,” he adds.

Tallying the cost is very difficult, but runs into millions of rands, says Openshaw. The time spent developing systems to prevent hacks on an IP network is also a significant cost, he adds.

Openshaw explains hackers run through millions of potential IP addresses in the hope of finding an unsecured link. Open addresses allows them access to a network, opening up access to a termination party, through which they are then able to send expensive destination traffic at no cost to themselves.

Playing safe
WWW Strategy MD Steven Ambrose says people tend to use simple passwords and user names that can easily be compromised. He says hacking into a VOIP system is easier than getting into a physical landline. “They don't have to send people up poles with clips.”

Ambrose says, while the hackers could betraced through their IP addresses, this isn't easy as they could just disconnect, or could route the hack through a proxy. “It's a ludicrously simple way of making phone calls.”

In the next two to three years, all communications will be IP-based, and as VOIP grows in use, hacking will increase, says Ambrose. “It's one threat that will be more and more pervasive as we go forward.”
VOIP hacking will become a big issue and could potentially sink companies if hackers ring up huge phone bills, says Ambrose.

By Nicola Mawson, ITWeb senior journalist.

http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=43442:hacking-threat-costs-voip-users&catid=260

Can Skype Help Microsoft beat Google?

You’ve probably heard by now that Microsoft is buying Skype (pending regulatory approval). This is Microsoft’s biggest acquisition to date at $8.5 billion, and Skype’s second acquisition (it’s already been bought and sold by eBay). Since Skype’s release from eBay, it has been quite busy adding features and functionalities, and even making some acquisitions of its own, such as that of live streaming video service Qik.

Was this acquisition a good idea?

Skype has a reported 663 million registered users and 145 million average connected users. The company recently announced a record of 30 million users online at the same time.

The deal has enormous implications, not only for Microsoft’s own offerings, but for the industry at large. There are also plenty of concerns. Let’s get to those first.

Concerns

Clearly, Skype has a big user base, and users have the right to be worried about what is going to become of their beloved service in the hands of a giant like Microsoft. Especially considering Microsoft’s track record of acquisitions (laid out its graphic nature here).

Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb brings up some reasonable fears, such as product neglect and malware issues. “Will Skype in 14 years look like Hotmail does today?” he asks. “Malware is already an issue for Skype and of course it’s a well known part of the Microsoft landscape,” he also notes.

How will it affect use across various platforms? Microsoft says it will continue to invest in and support Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms. Still, this is a little vague, and considering how much head butting goes on between Microsoft and Google, it wouldn’t be an enormous shock to see some issues raised in this area in the future.

On reassuring the continued support of other platforms, Steve Ballmer said at the press conference, “I said it and I mean it. We will continue to support non-Microsoft platforms.”

“We’re one of the companies that has a track record of doing this,” he added. Still, does that mean all platforms?

The fact that this is such a huge acquisition for Microsoft, however, should be an indication that the company will take it very seriously, as it has so much invested in Skype’s future success.

Mobile

Skype, which has more users than Twitter, should help Microsoft on numerous strategic levels. Mobile would be a major one. Skype will support Windows Phone, of course, and while it remains to be seen what kinds of integrations we can expect, there’s little doubt that it will be an integral part of the Microsoft mobile strategy as it tries to gain ground against Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.

Also consider that Microsoft has recently made deals with Nokia and RIM that will see Microsoft services heavily integrated on these companies’ mobile devices. It stands to reason that Skype will play a major role here as well.

It doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility that Microsoft would at some point create a Skype-branded phone.

The Living Room

The living room is one area where Microsoft already has a tremendous edge over competitors like Google and Apple. While the jury’s still out on the future success of Google TV and Apple TV, it’s been pretty well established that Microsoft’s Xbox line is a smashing success. Kinect is doing pretty well too. Guess what will be integrated with both of these.

In its announcement, Microsoft points out its “long-standing focus and investment in real-time communications across its various platforms” including Xbox Live. It also says Skype will support Xbox and Kinect, and will connect Skype users with Xbox Live (in addition to Lync, Outlook and other communities).

PayPal is also coming to Xbox Live. That can’t hurt either.

The Enterprise

Let’s not forget about the implications for businesses. Microsoft says the acquisition will increase accessibility of real-time video and voice communications for enterprise users and generate “new business and revenue opportunities”.

Plenty of businesses are already using Skype. How many are using Microsoft products? This could be a huge blow to Google, who is aggressively going after the enterprise market with Google Apps, and soon with Chrome OS. Skype may give businesses another reason to stick with MS. Of course it remains to be seen what kinds of integrations we’ll see.

Competition and Google

There are plenty of areas where Microsoft and Google compete with one another, and Skype could go a long way in helping Microsoft with maybe all of them. That includes the areas we’ve already discussed – mobile, the living room, and the enterprise. It also includes the communication services Skype provides on its own.

Google has been doing more and more in this area, whether it be in the form of Google Voice or video chat via Google Talk and Gmail (email being another prime example of where Google and Microsoft already compete). How about live streaming video? Skype recently bought Qik for this, and YouTube recently announced its own YouTube Live (both a viewing destination and a platform for streaming live video).

YouTube is also doing plenty of other things to cement its position of being THE online video destination. This week, the company announced new partnerships with movie studios, the doubling of its catalog of movie offerings (including new releases), and increased investments in original content from partners. This comes back to the living room discussion, but I’m guessing we will continue to see overlap in the offerings from these two companies here.

Bing

And then there’s Bing. What in the world could Skype possibly have to do with search? Well, everything we’ve talked about up until now is all about Microsoft expanding its presence and user base. The more people using Microsoft products (now including Skype), the more opportunities Microsoft has to push Bing on people. The more businesses using Microsoft products, the more opportunities for Bing integration. The more consumers using Microsoft in the living room (where Microsoft is already heavily pushing Bing via television commercials), the more opportunities for Microsoft to push Bing on users through products.

We’ve had the mobile conversation more than once – both when Microsoft announced its partnership with Nokia, and its partnership with RIM. They both equate to Bing search being the default search on more mobile devices, and getting Bing into more consumers’ hands (literally). These things can only help Bing’s continued growth.

Last week, we asked, “Will Bing catch Google?“. The Skype acquisition can’t hurt. Much of this is simply about opportunity. We don’t know all of the details about Microsoft’s plans for Skype, but there’s no question that there is an incredible amount of possibilities that can help give the company some much-needed boosts.

Kirkpatrick brings up another good point about developer opportunities, making the case that “social graph and address books, presence, file sharing, Instant Messaging, [and] mobile” elements of Skype are all things developers salivate over, and that with Microsoft behind it, developers could get a great deal more access to build more useful applications and integrations on top of Skype.

The social element was played up in the press conference about the acquisition.

The Facebook Factor

As long as we’re talking about how much of a strategic buy this could turn out to be for Microsoft, in its ongoing competition with Google, let’s not leave out the implications for Facebook – another company that not only has a partnership with Microsoft, but increasingly competes with Google in numerous areas.

Om Malik brings up some good points about how the acquisition relates to Google’s competition with Facebook, which he says could be the biggest winner of the deal.

“The Palo Alto-based social networking giant had little or no chance of buying Skype. Had it been public, it would have been a different story. With Microsoft, it gets the best of both worlds — it gets access to Skype assets (Microsoft is an investor in Facebook) and it gets to keep Skype away from Google,” he says. “Facebook needs Skype badly. Among other things, it needs to use Skype’s peer-to-peer network to offer video and voice services to the users of Facebook Chat. If the company had to use conventional methods and offer voice and video service to its 600 million plus customers, the cost and overhead of operating the infrastructure would be prohibitive.”

“Facebook can also help Skype get more customers for its SkypeOut service, and it can have folks use Facebook Credits to pay for Skype minutes,” he adds. “Skype and Facebook are working on a joint announcement and you can expect it shortly.”

Also, while Google continues to struggle in social, Skype makes Microsoft more social by default, with or without Facebook (MUCH more so with any Facebook integration).

The New York Times says Microsoft analysts see the acquisition as a move to block Google from “gaining greater ground in Internet communications”. Google was said to have been in talks with Skype about a potential partnership. It may or may not be the entire basis for the acquisition, but it’s not hard to see this logic.

To put it simply, it’s all about products that people use, and Microsoft just added another major one to its list.

Google is just kicking off its Google I/O developer event. It will be interesting to see what all news comes out of this, and how it might pertain to this discussion. Also keep in mind the ongling regulatory scrutiny over competition that Google continues to attract.

WebProNews: http://www.webpronews.com/can-skype-help-microsoft-beat-google-2011-05#more

Telecoms prices to fall?

South African consumers and businesses could see their telephone bills drop by up to 30% over the next two years, but only if all the benefits of lower interconnect rates are passed on to the end-user.

The high cost of communication has often been cited as a key inhibitor to business growth and expansion of the economy. Government has repeatedly said communication costs must come down to enable growth, but so far South Africans have yet to see big gains.

According to least-cost routing company Vox Orion, telephone bills will drop by 30% over the next two years due to lower interconnect rates as fixed-to-mobile calls become cheaper. “Lower interconnect rates mean everyone is paying less for their phone calls,” says MD Jacques du Toit.

However, it is unlikely all the savings will be passed on to end-users as voice revenue is under pressure, and operators are anticipated to hold onto as much margin gain as possible, notes analyst Steven Ambrose, MD of WWW Strategy.

Cheaper calls?

Last March, cellphone operators voluntarily cut the peak interconnect rate from R1.25 to 89c per minute. In October, the Independent Communications Authority of SA regulated interconnect rates.

Peak mobile termination rates dropped to 73c, while off-peak dropped to 63c this March. Another two cuts will come into effect before rates settle at 40c for peak and off-peak in March 2013.
Fixed-line rates will also drop, and will settle at 12c for peak and off-peak for local calls, while the rate for national calls will settle at 19c in March 2013.

Du Toit explains end-users will benefit if the entire interconnect rate is passed on by large and mid-tier operators. He says the total benefit since the initial cut last March will amount to as much as 42% reduction in phone bills. However, not all the players are passing on the total reduction. According to media reports, SA's largest fixed-line operator, Telkom, will only pass on between 50% and 70% of the latest reduction. ITWeb was unable to confirm this figure, as Telkom is in a closed period.
The fixed-line operator passed on 100% of the March 2010 cut, which resulted in a net interconnect loss of R24 million on fixed-to-mobile calls.

Du Toit says consumers and businesses using a Telkom line will see lower call rates as a result of a portion of the lower interconnect fee being passed on.

Cellular operators are also not passing on lower interconnect rates directly. Consumers have yet to see any significant savings as the country's two main mobile players, Vodacom and MTN, have categorically stated they would not pass on the savings to end-users.

The real benefit from lower interconnect rates will be felt by end-users who make use of mid-tier players, argues Du Toit. He says these providers will keep their margins stable, and pass on all of the cuts to their subscribers.

Du Toit expects the drop in voice tariffs as a result of lower interconnect fees to have the same effect as the drops in broadband data prices over the past few years. “Everyone is getting much more value for their money now.

“We've gone from using maybe 2Gb of data a month, to 5Gb to 10Gb to uncapped services, all at the same price. The same will happen with voice; people will either get more minutes for their money, or take advantage of other services.”

Profit game

Ambrose notes that operators can't afford to pass on all the benefits of lower interconnect rates, because voice is a dying business. “The fixed-line business is also in terminal decline.”

He says lower interconnect rates will trim the cost of making calls from a landline to a cellphone. However, he argues the saving won't be as high as 30%, because voice revenues are declining as data starts to take over.

“It is unusual that price reductions will be passed on in a declining market.” Ambrose says the only way end-users will see the full benefit is if volumes pick up, which will maintain revenue.

However, says Ambrose, the use of voice, especially fixed-to-mobile calls, is in decline. Real growth will be seen in the use of data and related products such as voice over IP (VOIP), he adds. “The days of massive price reduction in voice are gone, and they are not coming back.”

Huge Telecoms CEO James Herbst believes aggressive retail price reductions in the corporate enterprise market will only be offered by the fledgling VOIP operators, and aren't sustainable.

Minnows are operating on a business model that isn't sustainable because it's based on the assumption Telkom will only charge capital costs for its network, and not the cost of running the backbone, says Herbst. “Such business models are not sustainable as there is no such thing as a free lunch.

“Short-term price reductions offered by the VOIP operators will be fleeting and ultimately the costs offered by the incumbents will be the fair market price.” He says, as a result, retail rates for national and local termination will remain stagnant for the next two to three years.

- IT-Web

http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=43176:telecoms-prices-to-fall&catid=118

Taking it to the Cloud: SMB's look to remote VoIP services, but Quality of Service issues remain

For a cost-conscious small business, hosted VoIP telephony makes sense: Rather than pay for both a business line and a high-speed Internet connection, purchase just the latter and then set up a VoIP service for a fraction of the cost. But moving the VoIP connection out of the office won't immediately solve some of the common issues and pitfalls of today's IP-based voice network.


Ease of setup and inexpensive subscription rates are among the key factors driving the growth of VoIP services worldwide. This is most strongly reflected among residential consumers, who make up 69 percent of the worldwide market.

But businesses looking to expand are also looking for an IP-based voice solution that will grow with them yet remain cost-effective. That's driving growth in areas like SIP trunking--to the tune of a 143 percent increase in revenues in 2010, says Infonetics Research--but also creating a niche market of affordable business-grade options for SMBs.

That's where managed IP PBX services come in. Hosted services grew 20 percent last year as more businesses looked for ways to get expanded voice options at a lower cost.

But hidden among all the rosy news on hosted business VoIP are more than a few thorns.
Hosted PBX solves many of the problems involved in managing a VoIP connection locally, taking some of the burden off the IT department. In theory, IT guys no longer have to spend time tracking down problems with voice latency or network shutdowns, and they don't have to be as mindful of any processes eating up bandwidth needed by the local IP-based voice network. This should free up the IT department to concentrate on numerous other issues they face daily in keeping an organization's computer network up and running.

Once the IP-based phone system's management moves off-premise, however, the IT director isn't completely unburdened. Tom Adkins of Tele-Source Ind. Inc. recently pointed out weaknesses that both hosted and on-premise VoIP can experience:

• Security: Maintaining the integrity of the voice system during and after migration to a managed service.
• Equipment: VoIP phones installed on-premise can and do break; power surges can take out the phones, etc.
• Outside network issues: Distortions of signal or dropped signals due to a carrier on the public Internet or along the WAN, or a broadband or SIP trunk signal outage at the carrier CO (central office).
• Colocated networks: With many businesses opting for hosted services for both their IT and voice, often colocated, there's the risk that a change made on the IT side of the network will profoundly affect quality on the voice side of the network.
• Sharing bandwidth: When voice and data share a single feed into a business office, IT has to stay on top of the network setup so that one technology does not hog all the bandwidth.

So, how can an SMB maintain a remotely hosted VoIP service that's truly cost-effective without sacrificing quality? There are a few things to ask a prospective managed services provider before signing a contract:

• Will the company have a designated contact with VoIP expertise to maintain quality of service and help the SMB solve problems that crop up on its side?
• Is an element management service in place that will notify either the SMB's IT department or the host that an equipment problem is occurring on premise?
• What contingency is in place should the VoIP system fail--such as a failover to a designated POTS line on premise?

A final, but important factor is the SMB's own IT staff. Even if it's just one person managing the company's entire local area network, that person needs to also be trained in VoIP management procedures in order to optimize the incoming broadband line--and for many small businesses, it's just a single line--for both data and voice requirements.

Read more: Taking it to the cloud: SMBs look to remote VoIP services, but quality of service issues remain - FierceVoIP http://www.fiercevoip.com/special-reports/taking-it-cloud-smbs-look-remote-voip-services-quality-service-issues-remai#ixzz1IaD9xz2A

- FierceVoIP

A look at the skills telecom, IT departments need when transitioning to SIP trunking

Workers in telecom departments may be understandably apprehensive about switching from TDM to SIP, since it could conceivably put them out of work.

But any company that adopts SIP and promptly lays off its telecom team while shifting responsibility for voice to its IT team would be making a big mistake, according to Graham Francis, CIO of The SIP School training and certification program. That's because people working in telecom teams have several skills that IT department workers might not possess, such supporting quality of service for real-time applications such as voice calls.

PRIMER: SIP trunking

"All the telecom guys are going to have to understand how voice and data will mix on the same network," says Francis, whose training sessions focus on areas such as SIP messaging, SIP security, troubleshooting and interoperability. "People with TDM backgrounds need knowledge about data switches, firewalls and proxy servers. They need to understand that on a data network, voice just becomes another application."

While there is still definitely a place for telecom specialists in enterprises that use SIP trunks, they'll have to learn additional skills if they want to make a successful transition from TDM to SIP. In particular, they'll have to learn much more about traditional IT tools such as session border controllers and firewalls, since a SIP trunk is a broadband Internet link that utilizes SIP to connect a company's IP-based PBX to an Internet telephone service provider (ITSP). Instead of terminating the trunk directly at the IP-PBX, for security's sake companies tend to terminate the trunks at a SIP-capable session border control system that acts as a firewall.

Jim Maloff, the principal consultant for Maloff NetResults, says the biggest difference that telecom workers have to get used to when switching to SIP is thinking about phone calls in terms of bandwidth rather than available lines. This means that for large conference calls they'll need to figure out exactly how much bandwidth they'll need beforehand so they can provision it off and give it priority over other traffic on the network.

"If I know that I'm going to have 10 concurrent calls then I should know that I'm going to need 1 meg of bandwidth just for my calls," he explains. "You'll need to do packet prioritization and shaping to makes sure that voice packets get higher priority."

Like Francis, Maloff also thinks that telecom workers can bring much-needed skills and perspective to the job of managing SIP-based voice networks that IT workers will need some time to acquire. However, he also thinks telecom workers should realize that preparing themselves to manage SIP will take a lot of time and effort since there are a lot more variables in a SIP system than a traditional TDM system.

"The hardest thing for people who have been in telephony is now there's so much more they need to think about," he says. "In the past if I'm a telecom manager I never had to pay for local outgoing calls. With SIP trunking it's more like a cellphone model where 'local' has no meaning because you're on the Internet."

Brian Graves, a network engineer at the University of Washington who has a background in managing telephony, says he has had to learn much more about implementing quality of service as his department started designing a SIP core that it plans on rolling out over the entire network over the next few years. The difficulty for many people on the telecom side, he says, is understanding that voice calls no longer get automatic preference for bandwidth or even the total amount of bandwidth they'll need to successfully complete calls on an IP network.

"TDM is a circuit-switched technology, so QoS is essentially built right in because you have a dedicated amount of bandwidth on your call," he says. "An IP network is packet-switched so you don't have natively the same bandwidth guarantee. You have to implement QoS to make sure it isn't delayed by other data."

But it isn't just telecom workers who will need to learn more about QoS to successfully manage SIP trunks, as IT workers could learn more about QoS as it applies to voice. Pete Allan, a network engineer at Bandwidth.com who has a background in both IP and traditional telecom networks, says that IT workers will have to change the way they think about handling voice calls on their networks, since traditional methods of handling other applications won't cut it. Instead, he thinks IT departments have to consider voice to be more like a frequent flier reward.

"If you're a frequent flier on a particular airline then you get to go in front of everybody," he says. "If you don't treat it like that then your call quality will be really degraded ... you can't just throw more bandwidth at it."

Maloff also says that IT workers are going to get used to the idea of implementing real-time sessions without any jitter or delays that would typically be acceptable for most IP-based applications.
"IT guys need to stop thinking in terms of storing forward and need to start thinking in terms of real-time sessions," says Maloff. "Voice is an extremely time-sensitive application and as an engineer I have to make sure that I have sufficient capacity."

- Brad Reed, Network World

WhichVoIP.co.za launches online Business VoIP Quotation Facility

Johannesburg, South Africa 30 March 2011 – www.WhichVoIP.co.za has further positioned itself as the leading Repository, Comparison and Reporting website for all things VoIP in South Africa by launching a Business VoIP Quotation facility that helps companies connect with Business VoIP Providers. The new Quotation Facility is simple, quick and most importantly; easy to use.

Voice over IP has become a viable option for all businesses and not just for large organisations. In fact, most Businesses in South Africa make up the SMB market – and in todays economy, this is where each Cent really counts toward the bottom line."

This new facility has significantly helped us address the growing need that companies have to re-evaluate their telecom costs, by allowing them to get connected with reliable, trustworthy and high quality VoIP service providers." Says Mitchell Barker, founder of www.WhichVoIP.co.za

"More and more businesses are considering switching to business VoIP phone service from their regular landlines but are faced with the uncertainty of a new technology.  Our goal is to help people and businesses through the investigation process offering pertinent information related to the VoIP, and then the Commercial factors, which forms part of our Extensive Research Reports. Once our users have been through the investigation and evaluation process, we close the loop by putting these businesses in touch with the right people to make sure that there is follow-through with their project,” says Barker.

Businesses can take the first step towards major telecom cost savings by accessing the VoIP site at http://www.whichvoip.co.za. It is then easy to navigate through the providers and quote tool, with most users easily completing the process in under a minute.

Additional Functionality

WhichVoIP.co.za offers users the ability to purchase Research Reports, Compare VoIP Providers, Learn about the Technology, Query a VoIP provider by inserting the VoIP number, Sourcing a credible VoIP Associate through the National Directory, Collaborating with other Members in a Focused Forum, Staying in touch with VoIP News specific to South Africa; searchable by Provider, download Articles, read Interesting Blogs, and much more.

About

WhichVoIP.co.za is South Africa’s #1 Online VoIP Research and Reporting website which provides a central view of VoIP Telecoms Operators aims to take the Guess-work out of all the VoIP services and packages on offer in the Market.

WhichVoIP.co.za will not only keep companies who are investigating the technology informed prior to negotiation, but will also help providers and partners benchmark their services, align contracts, and truly be able to advise and offer their customers the best service suited to their business.

The best and worst telecoms operators in SA

A basic analysis of feedback on HelloPeter reveals which telecoms providers attract the most compliments and complaints from subscribers - Rudolph Muller, MyBroadband.


HelloPeter has become South Africa’s most popular destination for consumers wanting to lodge complaints about companies from which they received poor service.

According to the HelloPeter website 42,895 complaints were lodged by South African consumers over the last 90 days, bearing testimony to the popularity of the consumer website.

Unsurprisingly complaints significantly outnumber compliments, but to try to establish an objective measure of the service levels of a company HelloPeter provides visitors with league tables which include a compliments/complaints ratio.

This ratio indicates which percentage of feedback received is positive, giving a loose indication of the service levels of a company.

The following table provides an overview of the compliments/complaints ratio of South Africa’s
telecoms operators over the last twelve months.

Compliments/Compliments Ratio (larger is better)
	Complaints	Compliments	Compliments/Complaints Ratio (%)
Virgin Mobile	2341	318	13.6
Neotel	583	79	13.6
Vodacom	7494	1002	13.4
Cell C	5960	667	11.2
MTN	7668	756	9.9
Telkom	1733	161	9.3
iBurst	487	19	3.9

While a compliments/complaints ratio may be a fair way to measure service levels, a better way may be to measure the number of complaints per 1,000 customers received over the last twelve months. The following table does exactly that for the country’s largest telecoms companies.

Since HelloPeter is essentially a website where people complain about poor service, it makes sense to see how many complaints a certain company received when compared to their customer base.

It should be noted that the subscriber numbers listed below is based on the last publicly available figures.

Complaints per 1000 customers (lower is better)
	Complaints	Customers	Complaints/1000 Customers
Vodacom	7494	25,300,000	0.30
Telkom	1733	4,300,000	0.40
MTN	7668	18,800,000	0.41
Cell C	5960	7,000,000	0.85
iBurst	487	70,000	6.96
Virgin Mobile	2341	300,000	7.80
Neotel	583	50,000	11.66

Its all change for Telecoms

It's adapt or die for SA's alternative telecoms network providers, as a wave of consolidation will hit the market in the next two years.

A shift towards converged offerings will see smaller players being gobbled up by large telcos, or close their doors, as companies battle it out for bigger client bases and access to IP-based infrastructure.
Smaller companies will be bought out, or disappear into obscurity, as the sector goes through its most dramatic change since the launch of the mobile operators.

Companies and consumers will be the ultimate winners as communication costs will be pushed down.
Reunert has already made the first move, buying ECN Telecommunications for an undisclosed amount, to bolster its aim of being a converged player in the next 18 months.

ECN CEO John Holdsworth says a wave of consolidation is coming within the next two years as voice and data – as well as fixed and mobile – offerings start converging.
Holdsworth says the market will become increasingly competitive, which will lead to consolidation as operators seek to grow market share and quickly reduce costs in an increasingly saturated market.

The only way to grow market share, says Holdsworth, is through takeovers, mergers and co-operation. “Dominant operators with a strong financial base will be able to acquire additional market share and technology.”

Holdsworth says smaller operators that do not have the necessary scale to compete with the larger companies are likely to either disappear or be bought out. Larger players with strong balance sheets – such as Telkom, Dimension Data, MTN, Vodacom and. Reunert – will be the “ultimate winners”, he believes.

Extreme surfing

Nashua Mobile CEO Andy Baker adds the wave of consolidation is “inevitable” and is being driven by a need for operators to have critical mass. Firms that only offer one product, such as least-cost routing, will be “in trouble”.

The result will be a sector dominated by a handful of large players, notes Baker. “The rate of change in the telecoms arena will be more extreme than in the last 10 to 15 years. We are entering a phase of massive, massive change.”

The shift towards convergence will lead to cheaper communications, and costs will come down by double digits for large companies, says Baker. This price reduction will inevitably spill over into the consumer market, he adds. “The savings can be material.”

Likely targets

Huge Group CEO James Herbst says Reunert's buyout of ECN will heighten the desire to be pre-emptive rather than reactive during the consolidation phase. “Reunert is one of many that will come, especially in the voice sector.”

Traditional least-cost routing and voice over IP companies will be targeted for buyout, says Herbst. Telcos want to buy up client bases, he explains, and it's cheaper to buy than to build. “Our businesses have value because of our clients.”

Smaller players like Vox and Huge are undervalued at the moment when considering their underlying assets and client base, comments Herbst. Buying out these companies will add massive value to cellular companies as they can strip out the overhead costs, he explains.

With the move to convergence, companies must “adapt or die” and smaller players will either be gobbled up, or slowly disappear, says Herbst. Mobile operators and companies like Altech Autopage and Nashua Mobile are “perfect buyers”, he adds.

Richard Hurst, senior analyst of emerging markets at Ovum, says many smaller alternative network providers are “positioning themselves to be gobbled up”. He says companies such as Vox and Huge Group will be snatched up by large network operators such as Telkom and the mobile players.

Hurst says smaller companies will be bought out because of their revenue streams, and larger companies will want to take out some of the competition. He says without vast infrastructure and a large reach to consumer and corporate clients, smaller players won't “really be anywhere”.

As a result, says Hurst, SA will end up with about four or five large companies controlling the telecoms sector and smaller players will find it difficult to compete.

-ITWeb

8 Things You Can’t Do With VoIP

If you’ve been considering switching your phone service to a voice over IP service provider, you have undoubtedly heard all the different things you can accomplish with a VoIP connection. What you may not have heard is what you CAN’T do with a VoIP. In spite of all the advantages, there are a few things that still cannot be accomplished through VoIP.

1. Talk without an internet connection. IP stands for Internet Protocol. So, you must have an internet connection in order to use the VoIP phone services. Therefore, even if the phone service itself were totally free, you still have the cost of the internet connection. In addition, if your internet service goes down for any reason, you have also lost your VoIP phone service as well.
2. Talk when the power is out. You need electrical power to run your computer and you need it to power your router. When you lose power in your home and a VoIP phone is the only phone you have, your phone service will be out until your power is restored.
3. Use your standard analog phone without additional hardware. VoIP does not operate through your regular phone lines. Therefore, to use a standard analog phone with a VoIP service you must have a converter that connects your phone set to your computer. This is accomplished in a variety of ways, depending on your provider, but the additional hardware cannot be avoided.
4. Connect to a traditional fax machine. Actually this can be done, it just isn’t very effective and could cause you plenty of frustration as you attempt to send a fax through your VoIP connection. The issue involves the different type of data that a typical fax machine is trying to send and the difficulty in converting that data to a digital format. Scanning documents and saving them as pdf files for transmission is a better option.
5. Call anywhere in the world for free. If you have gotten the impression from some of the VoIP advertising that you can call anywhere in the world for free, you are mistaken. It is true that most of these services do provide international calling as part of their service package. However, each of the service providers delivers service to only a limited number of countries and not every country in the world.
6. Quickly switch your business phone system to VoIP. Business phone systems can be converted to VoIP systems to save money just like residential phones can be. Doing it quickly and simply may not be an accurate description though. Your current phone system and internal computer network would need to be analyzed to determine what all would be needed to make the conversion. What you currently have in place would make a big difference on just how complicated or uncomplicated the conversion would be.
7. Use VoIP with a dialup connection. This would defeat the whole purpose of a VoIP connection. The point of a VoIP connection is to eliminate the cost of a phone line. You can’t do that if your internet is accessed through a dialup connection. In addition the bandwidth provided through a dialup connection is not adequate for the needs of a VoIP service.
8. Control the weather. Even with the list above, it is easy to see that there aren’t many things that Voice over IP services can’t do. They are definitely quickly replacing traditional phone service providers. There was hope that they would be the answer to all problems, including inclement weather, however that has not been the case. Mother Nature remains on the loose.

Not all VoIP services are the same, so you must compare closely before making a choice and keep in mind the list above. There are a few disadvantages to a VoIP phone services, but most of those issues can be worked around with a little thought and planning.

- Copyright © myISPFinder.com all rights reserved

Not all VOIP providers are created equal

The drop in interconnect rates and the subsequent demise of the traditional least cost routing (LCR) model is making voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) and Internet telephony an even more attractive proposition for businesses due to all the benefits this technology has to offer.

These include reduced telecommunication costs, as the technology allows businesses to reduce infrastructure requirements and call costs over IP networks.

This technology also gives businesses the ability to adopt a converged communications infrastructure, which paves the way for the provisioning of voice, data and video services over the Internet, all of which can be managed in a consistent and measurable manner from a single service provider.

However, Wayne Speechly, Business Development Manager; Communication Services at Internet Solutions, advises businesses to carefully consider which VOIP provider they choose to partner with. “VOIP offerings are not yet commoditised, which means there are vast differences in the quality and reliability of these services in the market, and Internet telephony solutions do not always meet the criteria required of business-critical communication services,” he explains.

“For many people, their only VOIP experience to date has been a voice or video call over Skype. However, this type of Internet calling is a 'best effort' service, which means there are no guarantees made on the quality of service or reliability of the call, which is not acceptable for business use.”

In order for businesses to benefit from the full value that VOIP services can offer, there needs to be service level agreements (SLA) linked to the quality of service of calls being terminated and the infrastructure of a network, says Speechly. “Guaranteeing network quality is a simple proposition for most service providers, but the real value lies in a service provider's ability to guarantee both on-net and off-net call quality.

In this instance, the ability to measure and report on every call, along with the uptime and performance of the network, is something that most VOIP providers cannot offer. These are the key differentiators that businesses should consider before selecting a VOIP service provider.”

According to Speechly, to deliver real VOIP, service providers need to have an appropriate carrier grade national network, as well as a number of points of presence (POPs) and interconnects. “As this service is delivered over typical IT infrastructure, it can fail, so you need sufficient interconnects to ensure availability and reliability to off-net destinations. This is important because over 90% of the call destinations are to the main incumbents. Having sufficient POPs on a national basis means that the call can connect with other providers and services in different regions more efficiently, as the number of hops it takes to terminate the call is minimised. This also means that the service provider doesn't need to carry a call unnecessarily across the country, which incurs added costs and degrades quality, as they have the most optimal geographical routing.

“There is also a need for adequate redundancy and availability on a carrier grade network to ensure the reliability of the service,” he continues, “and this carrier grade network should include a class four switch that gives the service provider the ability to route calls between customers and the destination network, be it on- or off-net, with appropriate functionality.” The architecture must also be capable of seamlessly integrating with both traditional and new-age technology capabilities. “Most of the incumbent operators don't employ the latest technology due to the fact that they have sunken investments in their existing infrastructure and need to continue to sweat these assets until they are fully written off.

“However, the growing number of new entrants into the market, who are rolling out greenfield, next-generation networks that utilise the latest technology, will ensure better quality and integration when connecting VOIP calls.”

The fact that VOIP calls are terminated across an IP network means they are also exposed to the same risks as packet data. “A network is only as good as its weakest link, so the next important element when choosing a provider is ensuring they have adequate security around their network,” explains Speechly.

“A service provider needs to secure the edge of the network and also guard against potential hacks from within, as these breaches can compromise the network infrastructure, degrade the service and impact the quality of the calls being routed across the network. It is also important to ensure that other customers don't jeopardise the quality of the experience for anyone else on the network.”

According to Speechly, the last key element that should differentiate VOIP providers is their ability to provide telco grade billing via an appropriate engine. “The ability to accurately cost and bill all calls, so that the customer can get meaningful information around their usage and spend is an essential element for business and enterprise VOIP services,” he says. “The telecommunications industry is renowned for inconsistent and inaccurate billing practices and has often exploited businesses and consumers.

“So, following the changes in the LCR market, the industry can expect competitive and possibly more aggressive price cutting on voice services, as LCR providers left out in the cold due to the changing interconnect environment augment VOIP services into their offerings.” he continues. “However, market penetration through price cutting is normally associated with sacrificed quality. As such, any business looking to enhance their corporate voice calling capabilities, increase efficiency and reduce costs by adopting VOIP services needs to be cognisant of these facts. They should also ensure that they partner with a provider who is able to effectively build out their IP infrastructure to incorporate the value added services, like unified communications and hosted voice services, that naturally follow the successful implementation and use of enterprise-ready VOIP calling,” concludes Speechly.

- ITWeb

SA Telecoms misses price point

Voice and data telephony are fast becoming commodity-priced services across the African continent, as price wars create a cutthroat market.

But the SA telecoms environment remains overpriced and Internet penetration remains extraordinarily low, prompting executive director of Research ICT Africa Alison Gillwald to call for a serious ICT policy overhaul in the region.

Gillwald points out that, although SA has been an early adopter of many new technologies, its Internet penetration rate remains low and the country is no longer even a leader in broadband access on the most unconnected continent in the world.

She attributes this situation to the high cost of all communication services in the country from mobile through to leased lines and broadband services.

SA over-priced

“Historically, the cellular telephony market has enjoyed profits from exceptionally high, unregulated pricing. Dominant cellphone operators increased their termination rates by 500% in 2002, for example, and they remained there for nearly a decade, while in competitive markets in Africa they plummeted with rapid and effective regulatory intervention,” notes Gillwald.

SA's regulator adjusted the mobile termination price last year. The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) regulations will require the cellular industry players to reduce their peak cellphone call-termination rates to 73c a minute by this March, to 56c a minute by March 2012, and to 40c by 2013.

Off-peak cellphone termination rates will drop to 65c a minute by March this year and 52c a minute by March next year, with the off-peak charges dropping to 40c a minute by March 2013.

But Gillwald argues that the cuts to South African interconnection charges and, therefore, retail prices, will still be magnitudes of scale higher than the best performers in Africa.


Mobile operators across Africa are reeling from cutthroat competition that has seen call rates slashed by as much as 90% in countries such as Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania. This tumble has been accelerated in recent months by the arrival of international operators.

She points out that operators in these countries have all seen positive effects from increased usage, with more affordable mobile prices and, in many cases, greater profitability.

Bharti Airtel, in particular, is shaking up markets, following acquisitions in 16 African countries and its moves to replicate the low-rate strategy that has made it the dominant mobile operator in Asia.
However, delegates at the recently hosted Next-Generation Telecoms Africa 2011 Summit have pointed out that in SA, where mobile penetration is the highest in Africa at 98%, prepaid users pay up to R2.85 per minute, or more than 33 times the Airtel Kenya rate.

Even on special packages, they added, where South African prepaid users can pay rates of as little as R1.50 per minute, the Airtel tariffs are still less than 15% of that amount.

Overall, tariffs in Kenya are now running at around 20% of the equivalent rates charged by Vodacom, MTN and Cell C in SA, and often at a lot less than that, it was also established.


ICASA promises competition

ICASA last week commended itself for the publishing of interconnect regulations late last year, noting that it had two main expectations of the finalised regulations.

“Firstly, we expect the fixed to mobile retail call rates to reduce as the mobile termination rates are reduced. “Secondly, we expect some measure of pass-through to a reduction in retail prices of calls between mobile networks. However, given the nature of product bundling in the provision of retail mobile services, we expect that price reductions will be subject to dynamic competition,” explained the authority.

“ICASA's view is that a lack of effective pass-through to retail prices will indicate that there may be a lack of effective competition in the retail market for mobile services.”

Therefore, the authority will monitor price movements in the retail market for mobile services vigilantly over the coming months to evaluate whether further action is required.

“For further monitoring purposes, ICASA has been and will continue to receive tariff and related compliance reports from the operators,” stated ICASA.

But Gillwald argues that prices need to be understood as policy outcomes. “Any strategy to reduce prices needs to be part of a broader policy overhaul that will require the identification of policy levers to improve the country's sub-optimal performance.

“This will include identifying the necessary conditions for attracting critical investments in infrastructure extension, the optimal market structure and institutional arrangements, together with short-term incentive strategies to promote the uptake of PCs and Internet-enhanced devices, to longer term educational and IT literacy programmes, and identifying demand stimulation strategies that are essential to ensuring digital inclusion,” she advises.

- Leigh-Ann Francis, ITWeb

Why ICASA's critics have it wrong

The job of a regulator is never easy. It involves delicately balancing often divergent interests. There is no better illustration of this than the recently published call termination regulations, and the media reports that followed.

In its press release following publication of the regulations, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) stated that it had a triple mandate of ensuring fair prices to consumers, promoting competition in the information and communications technology sector, and promoting a favourable investment environment.

But, if media reports are to be believed, publication of the regulations has left parliamentarians and consumers dissatisfied with both the outcome and impact of the intervention.

Icasa’s job is made more difficult by perceptions that have formed over time that it is a weak regulator that dances to the tune of industry. These perceptions persist even though Icasa has made great strides in changing the industry landscape, working under difficult circumstances. It is much easier to throw around unsubstantiated and sweeping statements about Icasa’s authority and abilities than to support it in its efforts.

Much of the criticism levelled against Icasa within the context of the call termination regulations stems from a lack of understanding of the intention and expected impact of these regulations.

Consumers view call termination or interconnection rates as a retail price mechanism whose regulation must then necessarily induce an immediate and direct downward pressure on the price they pay for making calls. When this doesn’t happen, daggers are drawn and Icasa’s efforts are rubbished as futile.
Call termination rates are the fees telecommunications companies charge each other for interconnecting or handling calls across networks. By definition, it’s a wholesole rather than a retail rate.

If such a rate is set artificially at a high level, as has been the case over the last 15 years or so in SA, it affects the ability of smaller operators to compete against larger, more established players. Inevitably, the high wholesale cost is passed on to consumers in the form of higher retail or call rates.

When the wholesale rate is reduced, a natural expectation is for retail rates to follow suit. However, the relationship between the call termination rate and the retail price of a call is not a straightforward one and the impact of a reduction in the former cannot be ascertained based on theoretical deduction.
Economists often use the concept of “rockets and feathers” to illustrate the general rapid rise of prices and their often steady and slow decrease.

What is clear, though, is that a reduction of wholesale interconnection rates always affects competition in a direct manner.

Through competition, retail prices are expected to fall, service quality is expected to improve and more services are expected to be introduced into the market as innovation is spurred.
The primary significance of a reduction of wholesale interconnection rates is to change and modify the electronic communications market structure, to introduce new players into the sector and to foster healthy competition within the industry. It is competition that will result in lower retail rates.
Prudent regulatory practice justifies the regulation of retail prices where there is monopoly supply of goods or services. Where there are multiple suppliers the regulator must ensure that the interplay among competitors is fair; that the exercise of market power is tamed and that there is open, fair and non-discriminatory access to essential facilities, networks and network components.

Where the regulation of interconnection rates has occurred elsewhere in the world, the regulation of retail rates has become unnecessary as prices fall naturally due to competition.

Icasa has issued more than 500 electronic communications services and electronic communications network service licences. However, only a handful of licensees are active in the market, owing partly to high interconnection rates. The call termination regulations, coupled with other interventions, are meant to change the behaviour of market participants, with the ultimate benefits flowing to consumers.

In arriving at the set rate, Icasa had to balance the interests of consumers and smaller operators who would like to see an immediate drop in interconnection rates to cost-orientated levels with those of larger operators who have benefited over time from high interconnection rates and who would like to maintain the status quo or prolong the reduction for as long as it is possible.

The authority proposed a glide path, which gives operators time to adjust their business models and to innovate while at the same time affording smaller operators sizeable cuts.

Following the initial reduction of interconnection rates brokered by former communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda – from R1,25/minute to 89c/minute in peak times, MTN laid off hundreds of workers. Nashua Mobile is also retrenching staff and citing lower interconnection rates as a reason.

Vodacom reportedly incurred losses of about R800m in revenue in the first half of its financial year. Telkom reported a loss of R640m in revenue since the first rate cut in March 2010. Vox Telecom has recently announced an R842m impairment of goodwill at its Vox Orion subsidiary owing to reductions in interconnection rates.

Talk of more industry retrenchments abounds.
Icasa could not ignore the potential job losses at a time when the economy is emerging from a devastating recession. When balanced out, though the benefits of the cuts should outweigh the negatives.

That said, bigger operators must remain viable, while smaller ones are assisted to grow bigger and better — all without compromising healthy and sound competition.

To suggest, therefore, that Icasa has bowed to pressure  from the big operators is to ignore evidence and instead fall back on the easier and more comfortable route of rubbishing the regulator.
Icasa is changing for the better while its critics remain stuck in the past.

The work of conducting market reviews using competition analysis is the first ever in SA, yet the quality of the work done ranks among the best countries in the world. This is despite Icasa’s shoe-string budget and inadequate capacity.

It is worth noting that when the Competition Amendment Act was being drafted, the line department had to consider first the financial impact of the amendments on the competition authorities. Adjustments had to be made to the medium-term expenditure framework allocation at the time. The framework is government’s three-year budget projection.

Moreover, the theme of “strengthening the competition authorities” was adopted throughout the consultation stages, making it easier to sell the amendments, get buy-in, and rally everyone behind the competition authorities.

In 2006, parliament passed the Electronic Communications Act, introducing a new way of regulating the industry, and calling for particular expertise, skills, capacity and structure. Yet, unlike the competition authorities, Icasa continues to operate on the same budget and funding model it had during the previous era.

Critical questions were not asked about what the financial implications of the new act would be on Icasa. It is, however, heartening that new communications minister Roy Padayachie has promised to strengthen Icasa by enhancing its financial and technical competency so that it functions with confidence and independence.

This is exactly what Icasa needs now. In the meantime, it will continue to fulfil its mandate without fear or prejudice.

- TechCentral, on behalf of Fungai Sibanda