▼ Will VoIP Save the Enterprise Big Money?
By Erika Morphy
Source: NewsFactor 

Remote agents, wired to the contact center through VoIP technology, are ideal for calls that require high-level expertise — for instance, low-volume calls from high-level customers — as well as an excellent back-up for spikes in volume, especially when those spikes are predictable.   

It is easy to become enamored with the sexy VoIP  applications that have burst onto the scene recently — especially when the discussion turns to price points.

Cisco  and IBM , for example, just announced plans to collaborate on Internet-based telephony services, including VoIP. "Our focus is on the convergence of voice, data and video infrastructure, with a global team to work with customers on an individual-by-individual basis," said Don Fitzpatrick, vice president of the Cisco alliance at IBM. (Read more...)
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▼ How does VoIP work
Source: The Capital Times

VoIP explained

Q: How does VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) work? What makes it different from traditional phone service?  

A: Traditionally, a phone conversation is converted into electronic signals that traverse an elaborate network of switches, in a dedicated circuit that lasts the duration of a call. In Voice over Internet Protocol, a conversation is converted to packets of data that flit all over the Internet or private networks, just like e-mails or Web pages, though voice packets get priority status. The packets get reassembled and converted to sound on the other end of the call. (Read more...)
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▼ Internet Phones in Spotlight
By Verne Kopytoff
Source: IP Telephony News

Companies face more scrutiny by U.S., state agencies

Internet telephone companies, whose businesses are unregulated, are drawing the attention of government officials now that the industry has gained a small foothold with consumers and may ultimately challenge the Baby Bells.

Regulators in various states, including California, along with the Federal Communications Commission, are reviewing whether Internet telephone companies should pay the same fees as telephone companies that use traditional lines, such as SBC.  

The states are concerned that the increasing popularity of routing calls over the Internet will eventually decimate funding for programs that help the deaf and disabled, connect schools and libraries and pay for 911 service. But Internet telephone companies are fighting vociferously. (Read more...)
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▼ Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP): Just another Internet Application 
Source: Congressional Internet Caucus

Using the Internet for voice conversations is just a natural next step in the migration of communications to the Internet. The trend started with e-mail, the first Killer App on the Internet. Then came instant text messaging, now voice calls, and next we’ll be conferencing via voice and video from multiple IP-enabled devices. It’s an irresistible trend made possible by technology and infrastructure investments, and driven by compelling economics.

Since the early 1990s, e-mail has been displacing regular mail for written communications. Similarly, cellular phones are displacing land-line telephones, to the point where some consumers are pulling the plug on their landline phone service. Neither of these trends has caused significant public policy concerns, since they are the natural outcome of new technology and market forces. But the notion that voice could migrate from the legacy phone system to the Internet has captured the attention of telecom regulators, tax commissioners, and lawmakers. (Read more...)
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▼ VoIP Gaining Ground, Says SBA
By Kevin Ferguson  
Source: smallbizpipeline

But can't touch popularity of wireless among small businesses

Craft Diston Industries was taking a bath on its telecommunications costs. The shower door manufacturer had grown from a single location in Wichita, Kansas, to 11 offices across the country but had not updated its antiquated phone system. Fed up, Craft Diston installed voice-over-IP technology and is now saving $20,000 a month. (Read more...)
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 ▼ US groups lobby over VoIP regulation
By Tim Richardson
Source: VoIP News

An Internet telephony trade group has urged US authorities not to tie up the fledgling VoIP industry in red tape.

The Voice on the Net (VON) coalition — which includes AT&T, Intel, MCI, Microsoft and Skype among others — has called on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) not to apply traditional telephone regulations to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) warning that if it did, consumers would lose out.  (Read more...)
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▼ Is Security Holding VoIP Back?
By Dameon D. Welch-Abernathy
Source: Voxilla.com

When it comes to phone service, be it delivered over the internet or the old-fashioned way, people expect one thing: They want it to just work.  

For all the shortcomings of traditional PSTN service — high cost, a dearth of new features, lack of mobility — it is as trusty as a solid steel hammer driving home a nail. You pick up the handset, punch a few numbers and talk away. 

No one has ever been unable to receive a PSTN call because of an Internet routing problem or an attack by hackers. A traditional phone user can hold a conversation reasonably certain that an unauthorized person is not listening in. And it's not easy for an unscrupulous soul to make a Baby Bell call on your nickel while sitting somewhere far from your home.  

In the new world of Voice over IP, for some, this trust is still lacking. And a number of VoIP security issues have recently popped up that reaffirm their fears, raising an unsettling question: Is telephone service over the public internet network secure enough to replace PSTN? (Read more...)