03 October 2007

The focus on achieving cost savings with IP telephony is utterly misguided

There are two problems with the hype around IP telephony.

First, it probably will not save users as much as they would end up spending
on extra hardware to maintain call quality. ­ The promise of savings is a red
herring.

But there is a bigger problem in that most people punting IP telephony
completely miss the point about its real value. They are stuck in a 130-year-old
mindset in which telephony begins and ends with the ability of two people to
talk when they are apart. Several embellishments have been added ­ voicemail,
caller ID, call forwarding ­ but it is still all about talking. If all that has
changed is the way the voice signal is carried, then voice over IP (VoIP)
changes nothing.