Thanks to the internet disruption in my apartment complex, I have been cut off from the "online" world for the past 4 days. I was used to internet disruptions in India, but this is America and I could never expect such a long outage. This incidence just highlights how vulnerable VoIP communication could be (the topic of today's post).
VoIP relies on two basic components, i.e. electricity and internet connectivity. A disruption in any of them could leave VoIP unusable. In the developed part of the world, these are taken for granted. But even here they are not 100% reliable. The recent hurricane Gustav, for instance, left thousands of people stranded for days. The situation is much worse in the developing and the under-developed world. The point I want to emphasize is that so long as the underlying components of the service are not 100% reliable, we cannot expect a completely reliable VoIP system. Even in regular situations, my VoIP setup is not 100% reliable (I will write about my VoIP setup later). Every once a while, the call can not be completed or I am not able to receive calls. VoIP essentially requires a perfect interplay of several things in order to provide functionality (e.g. ATA, VoIP service Providers, ISP, electricity, DID providers, etc.). A failure in any of these will render your VoIP setup useless. What good is VoIP if it does not work when required?
Given these harsh realities (which will continue to be true for some time), it is difficult to imagine a complete (or even a substantial) switchover to VoIP, unless VoIP Service Providers (VSP) can do something to improve the reliability. Which brings me to the concept of "limits to convergence". Much as we would like VoIP to replace traditional telephony, there are these limits to this convergence. Traditional telephony networks are designed for voice communication and hence they are much better (not essentially cheaper) at it. The fact that there is just one company involved makes it more immune to failures. How many of us have completely replaced out cell phones/landlines with VoIP?
For many of us, traditional telephony devices are means to access VoIP. In essence, the phone companies can cohabit (and even prosper) with the VoIP companies. Yes, they will not be able to fleece the consumers for those long distance calls, but at least they have long term survival chance. The phone companies should take this into consideration and revisit their business models and incorporate strategies around VoIP to capitalize on this phenomenon.
Technorati Tags: Convergence, Reliability, VoIP, Internet, Business Model, Strategy
VoIP relies on two basic components, i.e. electricity and internet connectivity. A disruption in any of them could leave VoIP unusable. In the developed part of the world, these are taken for granted. But even here they are not 100% reliable. The recent hurricane Gustav, for instance, left thousands of people stranded for days. The situation is much worse in the developing and the under-developed world. The point I want to emphasize is that so long as the underlying components of the service are not 100% reliable, we cannot expect a completely reliable VoIP system. Even in regular situations, my VoIP setup is not 100% reliable (I will write about my VoIP setup later). Every once a while, the call can not be completed or I am not able to receive calls. VoIP essentially requires a perfect interplay of several things in order to provide functionality (e.g. ATA, VoIP service Providers, ISP, electricity, DID providers, etc.). A failure in any of these will render your VoIP setup useless. What good is VoIP if it does not work when required?
Given these harsh realities (which will continue to be true for some time), it is difficult to imagine a complete (or even a substantial) switchover to VoIP, unless VoIP Service Providers (VSP) can do something to improve the reliability. Which brings me to the concept of "limits to convergence". Much as we would like VoIP to replace traditional telephony, there are these limits to this convergence. Traditional telephony networks are designed for voice communication and hence they are much better (not essentially cheaper) at it. The fact that there is just one company involved makes it more immune to failures. How many of us have completely replaced out cell phones/landlines with VoIP?
For many of us, traditional telephony devices are means to access VoIP. In essence, the phone companies can cohabit (and even prosper) with the VoIP companies. Yes, they will not be able to fleece the consumers for those long distance calls, but at least they have long term survival chance. The phone companies should take this into consideration and revisit their business models and incorporate strategies around VoIP to capitalize on this phenomenon.
Technorati Tags: Convergence, Reliability, VoIP, Internet, Business Model, Strategy
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