Ten dollars a month for unlimited international calls, do you accept this deal if you are the VoIP business owner?
[+] Software economy and hardware economy
Skype is a new model of VoIP. Its most distinct feature is that, instead of buying and installing VoIP telephone sets, users need only to download the software into their computers to make calls. Perfectly matching the feature of the cyber economy, it spreads rapidly around the world within a short period of time.
Yet the model has its own defects, too. Users must have computers, which must be turned on, know how to install the software, and buy special earphones and microphones before they can make phone calls. From my own experience, I tried a lot of times to get the best voice quality for the first time I used the service.
If there is a VoIP phone set, which looks exactly like an ordinary phone set, installed in the living room and connected with an ADSL broadband cable and allows direct dialing just like any other phone set, isn't that a lot easier and straight forward than the current way of using Skype? As it offers VoIP service, the call rate would be cheap, too.
As it involves hardware (the phone set), such a VoIP service model will not spread as fast as the Skype software does. However, it is easier to use. At least, people who cannot handle a computer may also enjoy the low VoIP call rates.
Seemingly difficult as it is for sales, that model has been extremely successful in Japan. While marketing its ADSL service, Yahoo!BB, an ADSL broadband service provider, also sells VoIP phone sets and services, which has pushed traditional telecom operators to a corner.
Within one year, Yahoo!BB accumulated five million subscribers, resulting in the downslide of the revenue of NTT, a traditional telecom operator in Japan, by 20%. Consequently, NTT had to follow its step by offering VoIP services to prevent additional loss of subscribers. Yet, by the present time, it is the only case in the world. Could that story happen again in other countries?
[+] Phone Number is the key
In Taiwan, many Type II telecom operators have already introduced the VoIP service similar to that offered by Yahoo!BB, for example, Seednet'sWagaly Talk. Such a service, often treated by business runners as a value added service of ADSL, is intended to develop a new revenue source as the profit margin of ADSL is narrowing.
The service has a similar billing model with Yahoo!BB. Subscribers pay monthly fee. Calls between two subscribers of Yahoo!BB (known as on-net calls) are not charged. Calls between a Yahoo!BB subscriber and a conventional phone number are charged at a much lower rate. The model is exactly identical with that of Skype.
What if I use such VoIP phone in Taiwan and a friend in the United States gets a VoIP phone of the same type? Isn't it still an on-net call? Isn't it free? The answer is yes, VoIP is eliminating the geographical borders, bringing everybody into a large global telephone network.
If even international calls can be free, doesn't that mean the end of traditional telecom operators coming closer? However, the paradox is: if it continues in that way, even VoIP operators could not make any money. Imagine this: ten dollars a month for unlimited international or long distance calls, do you accept this deal if you are the VoIP business owner?
VoIP operators are clear that the biggest money lies in the calls from VoIP to traditional phone subscribers, i.e., the difference between the wholesale and retail prices of the traditional voice service. The idea is exactly the same as that of SkypeOut. However, at the current stage, they have to depend on the traditional telecom industry for living.
In addition, all VoIP services, whether they are of hardware based type or software based type, have a vital vulnerability. It cannot receive any call from any traditional number, as VoIP does not have its own numbers. Nobody believes that such a service that allows outgoing but not incoming calls could become the mainstream across the world.
[+] Government's attitude decides the direction of further developments
How did Yahoo!BB defeat the traditional telecom industry? In 2003, the Japanese government issued numbers prefixed with 050 to Yahoo!BB for the development of its VoIP service. Therefore, Yahoo!BB was able to upgrade into one with full functions, including both dialing and receiving.
Having seen this painful example, telecom operators around the world got even fiercer against the number issuance. Nevertheless, the South Korean government still insisted on granting VoIP operators with numbers prefixed with 070 in November 2004. Taiwan has announced its plan to open the service, too. The follow-on developments are worth more attentions.
Type I operators have to invest huge amount of money to develop their infrastructures, and suffer years of loss before they could eventually make profits (which, of course, are huge, too). Now they are challenged by a little brother who has been depending on them for living. That is an embarrassment.
Here's an extreme example: if all Type I telecom operators were replaced by VoIP operators, then you would not have the ADSL service in your home. Without those Type I telecom operators, and the tremendous investment they have made in laying and maintaining cables and in customer services, there will not be a single ADSL line for you to make VoIP calls.
Type I operators know, too, that the VoIP trend is inevitable. Therefore, a more possible development is to allow Type II operators to take the lead, stimulate some Type I operators to provide the service then accomplish a paradigm shift. When it gets completely into the VoIP era, the telecom industry will have to face a very thin profit margin, because the entry barrier of this sector will get very low, result in bringing more competitors.
In Taiwan, almost every household has its fixed landline. Unlike handsets, which might sell more expensive each, fixed phone sets are cheap. Therefore, the fixed landline operators will be the first to suffer the challenge of VoIP. As to mobile operators, the impact will be felt much later.
2004/12/12 - By Digitalwall.com - Way to
China Internet/Telecom )
- Read More
Prev : VoIP (2) Who Depends on Whom
Next : VoIP (4) Dual-network Handsets Will Die of Subsidies
- Today in History
The Fourth Generation of Internet Marketing (1) RSS Marketing - 2006/12/17
Internet and Books (2) the Supply for Content Exceeds the Demand - 2005/12/11
VoIP (4) Dual-network Handsets Will Die of Subsidies - 2004/12/19
VoIP (3) Phone Number Is Vital - 2004/12/12
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment