VoIP Mechanic wants to keep you informed with some of the news that will  directly affect 'Voice over the Internet' consumers and providers.  We will highlight events and news, placing emphasis on the direct impact and relativity to the VoIP community.  We believe this is preferable, rather than to just focus on the latest news event, which may not be as important.

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Bits, Bytes & Some Commentary

Not only does VoIP have an advantage over other call systems, a premise based IP-PBX looks like the better choice for many businesses over hosted VoIP.  An interesting article that talks about the comparisons, overlooked by many businesses, explains "But, expansion costs and other branch locations can change the cost equation dramatically. In addition, you will have ongoing costs related to connection to the regular phone system and whatever connection costs are imposed by your backbone supplier. These ongoing costs are nevertheless going to be considerably lower than any other form of phone system. They should be lower than hosted VoIP solutions, and they will be dramatically lower than any older PBX and telecommunications provider."   It appears the Asterisk equation has started to make more of a presence in the SMB market, lowering costs when looking at the bigger picture.  read more 7/23/08

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With expenses constantly creeping upward, it is no wonder that communications costs will be front and center when looking at conserving.  This article lists "Five Tips to Reduce Your Company's Telecommunications Expenses" and VoIP is on it.  Further we would add, that  conferencing instead of traveling is part an parcel of the VoIP application.  Now if they added remote workers, going green and working from home with a VoIP connection, we believe the list would have hit a home run.  read more 6/27/08

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US Business VoIP lines are expected to total 7.8 Million by 2012.  By the end of the decade US businesses using Internet telephony will surpass 5 million.  This continuing increase will be led by larger enterprises and will be driven by the efficiencies and cost savings of VoIP.  Read More (5-06-08)

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The IP Telephony show in Miami Beach this year highlighted what will certainly be the future direction of the telecom industry.  It was all about VoIP, hosted VoIP, IP trunking and open source Asterisk® IP-PBXs and the vendors who make the hardware that will interface with it.  Traditional expensive PBX manufacturers are realizing they will have to earn their presence and remain competitive against an Asterisk® based IP-PBX.  And even though the traditional PBX companies have been trying, open source Asterisk® systems have the advantage of pricing, feature sets and flexibility that will be tough to beat.  And the timing is right for it.  Networks, both large and small have never been better, lying the foundation for all IP based voice.  And Asterisk has been solidifying its place as the open source PBX, with millions of installs and millions upon millions of hours of stable consistent operation.  Add to that the time tested open source community and we can see where things have been progressing to.  Only now it is here. 2/1/08

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2007 was quite the year for VoIP.  It ranged from Sunrocket's crash and burn demise, to numerous new innovations coming from enterprising young companies.  And to top it off, Microsoft's VoIP entry with their new Office Communication's Server.  Listing the top 10 innovations for the year can be a challenge, one that was done well with the following grouping.  It happens to include several business VoIP solutions. For sure, with better cheaper bandwidth available, business telephony will keep marching towards a VoIP solution.  Included in this list was one hosted VoIP provider with a pricing plan that could make other hosted providers stand up and take notice.  If trends and innovation seem to be defining the 2007 VoIP movement, then our addition to this list would be the "coming to the mainstream" of open-source Asterisk solutions.  It appears the timing is right for companies to start buying Asterisk PBXs from enterprising companies, instead of sticking with more traditional big player names, and if we are right, then perhaps this will be the top story for 2008.  Here's the 2007 List.

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The FCC has now expanded LNP (Local Number Portability) to include VoIP providers.  Users will now be able to port in or out numbers to VoIP providers and can switch their numbers to other VoIP providers.  Furthermore the FCC says that providers cannot hold up a port to a different provider and have placed a 48 hour time period for the port to take place.  more 11/16/2007

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Jajah provides buttons which "gives freedom" for eBay buyers and sellers to talk, but eBay says no.  Jajah, a VoIP provider recently provided buttons that can be easily placed on an eBay seller's site allowing for communication between them and the buyers.  The reason being that this would facilitate the sales process and be good for both parties, but eBay says it violates their rules.  Furthermore, eBay said that for sellers that embed these buttons, they will remove their listing, as it violates their no link rule.  This may be true, but sometimes a conversation can answer a lot of questions quickly that two or three emails may not.  It just goes to prove, that as VoIP evolves, there will be many uses and applications developed that were never previously envisioned.

In reality every eBay seller should have a VoIP service for their small business, but probably only a small percentage now do.  But that will grow, as they learn about the advantages and savings of VoIP.  We suppose eventually they all will end up with VoIP, but just maybe not embedded button links that eBay can't control.  more 10/8/2007

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Sunrocket, a large residential VoIP provider is going out of business.  Many customers paid and an upfront $199.00 for a years worth of service (a very reasonable deal, maybe too reasonable).  But, if Sunrocket can't deliver, then the deal is not so good after all.  Were sure that Sunrocket tried its best to stay afloat, but executing a solid business plan is more than growing at any cost, it's also about economics 101.  You can't loose money on each customer and make it up in volume.  Sometimes the best deals are also the most risky.  more 7/29/07