The Top 25 VoIP Innovations of 2008
by Robert Poe
Here, in no special order, are the top 25 VoIP innovations of 2008:
1. Creating an iNum country code for VoIP: It was the most far-sighted initiative of the year. Belgium-based Voxbone SA, a global supplier of inbound local numbers and IP transport, persuaded the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) to create a new country code for international calls. The move meant callers would be able to dial an "iNum" phone number starting with 883, instead of a location-based phone number beginning with, say, 1 for the U.S. or 44 for the U.K., and reach a VoIP subscriber anywhere in the world.
The new country code went live in November. To start, it will mainly work for calls between subscribers of VoIP services. In 2009, Voxbone will begin setting up the commercial and technical arrangements with carriers that will allow calls from ordinary landline and mobile phones around the world to reach VoIP subscribers with iNums. At that point, VoIP will have become a country of its own.
2. VoIP for iPhone and Android: VoIP companies of every stripe raced each other in 2008 to make their services work with the hottest mobile handsets around, the iPhone and the Android. The contenders included fringland ltd., iSkoot, JAJAH Inc., 8x8 Inc., Truphone, Voxofon LLC and more. Some of the applications they came up with use client software downloaded to the handset, and some provide mobile Web sites that replicate, for example, the iPhone dial pad. Some rely on wifi connections, while others send calls over cellular voice links to the VoIP network. Voxofon's Android application works in the background, emerging only to give the caller the choice to make international calls via VoIP rather than expensive overseas cellular circuits. Taken together, the flurry of applications demonstrated how rapidly VoIP companies can innovate in response to fast-changing conditions.
3. Extending voice-streaming technology to video: When GIPS changed its formal name from Global IP Sound to Global IP Solutions in January 2007, it pointed the way to the future of the VoIP industry. A variety of Web-based VoIP providers, from AOL LLC to Gizmo5 to Net2Phone Inc. to Yahoo! Inc., use GIPS voice-processing technology to maintain the quality of voice communication over widely varying network types and conditions. And if GIPS was ready to move beyond just sound (that is, voice), it meant they could too. So when the company extended its technology to video in October 2008, it laid the groundwork for an explosion of new services using VoIP as just one part of a larger array of real-time IP communications.
4. Free hosted IP PBX – if you buy SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) trunks: One of the key benefits of hosted VoIP, or hosted IP PBX, is the money it can save companies by cutting calling costs and making the purchase of premise phone systems unnecessary. In September, Bandwidth.com took that benefit to the extreme by offering free IP PBX service to customers of its Internet access and SIP trunking services.
The move did away with the per-seat pricing model of conventional hosted services, since it meant companies could pay only for the number of SIP lines they bought. That helps because not all employees are on the phone at the same time, so five lines might be enough for a 20-person company. With a per-seat model, by contrast, each extension, even rarely used ones in the reception area or loading dock, still costs about $50 per month.
5. Voice-to-text transcription for both incoming and outgoing messages: Voice-to-text transcription, using voice-recognition software to turn incoming spoken messages into text, is becoming an increasingly common feature of innovative voice mail services. The attraction is clear: Users can read their messages on their PCs or mobile devices rather than having to call in and negotiate an interactive menu to listen to them. They can also skip unimportant messages instead of having to wade through the whole list.
MessageSling applies voice recognition to the voice mail recipients' speech as well. First, it lets them access the system by verbal commands rather than key presses. More important, it lets them reply verbally, turning their spoken responses into text for delivery to the original callers by email or text message. Pretty soon, pressing keys will be a thing of the past.
6. Free ad-supported international calling: Several services provide free calling between users connected to the Internet. Calls to traditional phones, however, almost always cost money, because traditional phone companies charge for terminating calls. Ring Plus Inc. makes even international calls to landline and cellular phones by having callers listen to short ads rather than ringing tones while waiting for the person to answer. It's not for everyone, but it offers a good alternative for those with many overseas friends and relatives who aren't always at their computers to take a Skype or Gizmo call.
Talkster provides a similar free calling service and adds a perk for those who want to save even more money by using Skype to replace their landlines. Its ad-supported service depends on knowing who is placing the international call, based on the person's caller ID. Because SkypeOut users can now attach their cellular numbers as their outgoing caller IDs, they can now make unlimited overseas calls through Talkster for the $2.95 per month that outbound Skype calling costs in North America.
7. Putting voice, video, text, time and location information in a single post: Vayyoo's vPost service offers yet more proof that VoIP is just one of a spectrum of interrelated applications that can be delivered in a variety of ways. The service lets smartphone users create integrated messages containing voice, image, video, text, time and location information, and post them to a Web site or other system of their choice. The messages are of course called vPosts and their potential uses are limited only by imagination.
8. Newber's iPhone anywhere numbers. FreedomVOICE went straight for the iPhone crowd with the beta introduction of Newber, a virtual number service that lets business users automatically change the numbers to which their cellular calls are forwarded. It employs client software that uses the iPhone's GPS capabilities to determine which office or home landline the user is near, and automatically forwards incoming calls to that number. Unfortunately, although the innovative service was supposed to go commercial in October, it still hasn't shown up on the FreedomVOICE Web site.
9. Real-time — and real cheap — language interpretation: Transcribing voice messages into text is, as noted above, fairly common by now. This summer JAJAH and IBM Corp. collaborated to do something far more unusual: translate spoken phrases into a different language. When in a foreign country, call a local JAJAH number and speak a phrase into your mobile handset. Hand it to the person you're trying to communicate with to hear your phrase as translated into the local language. The cost? Just the price of a JAJAH call, which typically runs pennies per minute. The innovative VoIP provider unveiled the Chinese version of the service in time for the Beijing Olympics.
10. Hosted VoIP as a key system: Call it retro VoIP. 8x8 introduced a version of its Packet8 hosted IP telephony service that emulates traditional small-business key systems rather than sophisticated big-company IP PBXes. When a call arrives, the lights for line 1 begin blinking on everyone's phone at once. When someone answers it and starts talking, the next call lights up all the line 2 lights. Call transfers also take place the old-fashioned way: someone presses a button to put the caller on hold, and shouts across the room, "Line 1 for you, Joe." Meanwhile, the small business gains all the cost savings and technical advantages of IP telephony without burdening change-resistant employees with learning a new system.
11. A wifi voice seal of approval: Experts often warn that transporting voice calls over wifi links can compromise call quality. No small business wants to damage its image with shoddy-sounding phone calls, but sometimes wifi is the only practical way to gain the benefits of VoIP. To help with such dilemmas, the Wi-Fi Alliance this year began certifying equipment as suitable for carrying voice traffic.
The Alliance's standards are strict: latency and jitter must be less than 50 milliseconds and packet loss less than 1 percent. The original program, covering home/SOHO gear, is called the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Voice-Personal program. Manufacturers will be able to put stickers on their equipment boasting of their certification, bringing ease of mind to harried managers hurrying to implement VoIP as quickly and cheaply as possible. The Alliance's next step is to certify the kind of heavy-duty equipment used by enterprises and carriers.
12. VoIP peering for Web-phone companies: VoIP peering, in which VoIP providers exchange traffic directly rather than sending it to one other through the PSTN (public switched telephone network), benefits both the vendors and their customers. In particular, it helps them avoid the extra cost and decreased voice quality that results every time voice traffic moves from an IP network to the PSTN. Stealth Communications' VPF (Voice Peering Fabric) has for some time been a place where VoIP companies with their own physical networks could exchange traffic.
In the summer of 2008 Stealth extended that capability to what CEO Shrihari Pandit calls software-based telecoms — that is, those that have no physical networks of their own, but rather deliver their calls over the Internet. The change will let some of the most innovative phone companies around work together, potentially creating large groups of users who can share creative new voice and other services that rely on end-to-end IP transport.
13. Flexible Web-based conferencing for SMBs (small- to medium-sized businesses): Add a Web interface and conference calls evolve from rigidly limited conversations to spontaneous discussions with multiple ways for participants to know what others are up to. Iotum Inc.'s Calliflower service, for one, provides an onscreen dashboard that lets callers see who else is on a call or has not yet joined, as well as a chat "wall" where they can exchange text comments and post URLs to illustrate their points. Scheduling is just as easy. Users can log on and immediately set up a call, send invitations and moderate the call. Best of all, there's a version that costs nothing except for the long-distance connection to reach the service.
14. Bringing outbound virtual number calling to the menu bar: GrandCentral Communications was a high profile startup that built a loyal following by providing virtual numbers for individuals. Its users could go online and have calls to their numbers forwarded to whatever landline or mobile phones they wished. It was particularly helpful for those who moved, changed or lost jobs, because it meant they could remain reachable no matter where they were. The problem was that if they made calls from those same landline or cellular phones, the outbound calls didn't display their GrandCentral caller ID.
In November 2008 GrandCentral, which Google had acquired in July 2007, developed a desktop calling application for Macintosh users called Vocito. Clicking the Vocito icon in the menu bar opens a drop-down window that lets users click-to-call manually entered or address-book numbers. GrandCentral first calls the user at a preregistered number; when the user picks up, it calls the destination number, giving the GrandCentral number as the caller ID. It turns virtual numbers into practical business tools.
15. IMs containing voice instead of text: IMing (instant messaging) can be a time-saver and efficiency booster. But taking it mobile introduces a number of inefficiencies. In particular, typing on a tiny keyboard is difficult anywhere. And in some places, such as the driver's seat of a car, it's also dangerous. Palringo's solution, which it calls vocal IM, lets people send each other instant voice messages. Call a number, say the name of a person in your contact list and speak your message. The recipient gets a text-message notification, then calls a number and listens to the message. Couldn't be simpler — or easier on the thumbs.
16. Browser-based video calling: For big enterprises looking to go beyond VoIP to video communication, telepresence systems costing $100,000 or more will work just fine. But smaller companies will need something cheaper. Fortunately, Adobe System Inc.'s Flash technology now puts the capability to make video calls using a webcam and computer microphone right in the browser. TokBox Inc. was one of the first to take advantage of it, targeting consumers with its easy-to-use offering but providing a useful tool for small businesses as well. Raketu wasn't far behind. Jaduka offered a similar service but built it around Microsoft Corp.'s ActiveX, so it only works with Internet Explorer. Ribbit Corp. also uses Flash technology in its Web telephony platform, so look for much more of the same.
17. Hands-free configuration for IP phones: Fonality got tired of hearing the term "auto-provisioning" used to describe how easily IP PBXes register and set up new IP phones once they're plugged into a network. The company believed too many vendors were claiming to offer the capability when users really had to do a fair amount of work to get the phones working. So Fonality came up with the term "hands-free auto-provisioning" to describe the way its trixbox Pro IP PBX platform worked. The software detects each Aastra Technologies Ltd. or Polycom Inc. phone as it is plugged in, determines whether it's new, gives it the next available extension if it is, and orders it to reboot. After that, the phone is ready to use.
18. Giving click-to-call a pleasant voice: Click-to-call applications are popping up everywhere. They allow a company to embed a link or button in a Web site or email. When someone clicks, the application sets up a VoIP call between the clicker and the company, using SkypeIn or some other service to make the call free to the caller. MOBIVOX makes the service sound better than usual. It initiates a call to the person who clicked the button, then calls the intended recipient at the company that published the button. When the recipient picks up, a pleasant-sounding voice says where the call is from and how much it will cost per minute, and offers the option of accepting or rejecting the call. It's nicer than being interrupted by a screen pop or, worse, simply a call displaying an unfamiliar caller ID or none at all.
19. Automating the creation of Asterisk call flows: Using Asterisk IP PBX software can let a small company build a phone system on the cheap. But Asterisk can be hard to use, particularly when it comes to setting up dial plans or call flows — those complex roadmaps dictating how the system handles incoming and outgoing calls. The unappealing options include learning to program using the text-based Asterisk dial-plan syntax, or hiring someone to do it for you.
Apstel LLC's Visual Dialplan provides a graphical interface that makes it easy to set up call flows without being an Asterisk geek. Although providers of commercial Asterisk-based IP PBXes offer their own graphical administrative tools, they typically target a broad range of configuration and other tasks. As a result, they aren't able to make full use of Asterisk dial-plan features and capabilities. Because Visual Dialplan specializes in the task, it can do it better than the more general-purpose applications.
20. Moving from big-iron to UC (unified communications) software vendor: Put this one in the category of walking the walk, not just talking the talk. Siemens AG showed it took seriously the contention that the future of communications lay in software, not hardware. In March, it released OpenScape UC Server, UC software that can run on Linux servers and lets enterprises migrate to VoIP and UC at their own pace. It also released voice, UC and video applications that will run on the platform. The voice application, HiPath 8000 V3.1 R2, was ported from Siemens' HiPath 8000 enterprise phone system. In short, the vendor released software would let companies build phone systems running on open-source server platforms as an alternative to buying its hardware.
21. Combining Skype calling with online collaboration: Online collaboration lets people in different locations view each other's computer desktops and share applications via the Internet. It's more effective if they can talk to one another, but that can get expensive if they live in different parts of the world. Yugma Inc. addressed that problem by integrating Skype into its cross-platform service for Linux, Macintosh and Windows users.
22. Turning Web developers into phone-service providers: In late 2007, Ribbit introduced its platform aimed at making it easy to extend telephony services to the Web. BT (British Telecommunications PLC) bought the Silicon Valley startup in July 2008. And in November Ribbit took its platform public, automating the sign-up process and otherwise making it as simple as possible for Web developers to build phone functions and features into their applications. BT demonstrated its commitment to software-based telephony by allowing developers to use any network they liked to access Ribbit rather than insisting that they use the BT network and pay for the privilege.
23. Disposable numbers for serial socializers: It's fairly easy to get cheap or free virtual phone numbers, which accept incoming calls that you can then have forwarded to any other numbers you wish. Most providers of such services, though, expect you to keep the numbers once you have them. Vumber, by contrast, wants you to feel free to throw your virtual number, or Vumber, away whenever you feel like it. And why might you feel like it? Well, perhaps you gave the number out too often to people in bars — or to department stores or Web merchants. Either way, you can change to a new number three times for free on top of the $9.99 monthly charge. After that, each change costs $1.99. It's a cheap way to make up for your lapses in social judgment. As the Vumber Web site puts it, "You can change your Vumber like you change your clothes."
24. VoIP as USB plug-in: MagicJack came out of beta at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 2008. The tiny device plugs into the USB port of an Internet-connected computer, and an ordinary phone plugs into the MagicJack. Get one for $39.95 and you can make unlimited calls in North America for a year, with each year thereafter costing $19.95. Get a pair, give one to your friend or relative, and the two of you can talk for free for as long as you like. The biggest shortcoming: your computer has to be turned on to make and receive calls. The biggest attraction: plug-and-talk simplicity.
25. Stuffing all communication services into one platform: It was the most ambitious entrant yet in the contest to consolidate every conceivable Internet communication method in a single platform. In November, TelCentris Inc. introduced the VoxOx universal communicator that lets users access the major email, IM, voice, video and social networking services through one interface. It combines all the contact information in a single "meta" address book and provides a free virtual phone number for incoming calls. The only cost is for outbound calling to the PSTN. It runs on Windows and Intel Macintoshes, with Linux and mobile versions in the works.
