Beyond minutes based busines models
There exist maybe 50 companies with Skype and Vonage at the head of the pack that grew into significant enterprises based on VoIP technology. All the 50 companies ended up with a business model based on connecting people to the telephone network, hence none of the companies really offered an Internet like communication experience independent of geography and usage fees. Skype to Skype calls take advantage of the Internet, but Skype's dependence on the SkypeOUT telephone revenues keep the company tied to the telephone network. This means the world of VoIP entirely lacks the two things that drove the growth of the world wide web in zero incremental cost global termination and navigation via hyperlinks. Touching the telephone network means usage based charges and telephone numbers. The revenue and growth problems suffered by Skype and Vonage seem like symptoms of the deadend telco myopia shared by the entire VoIP industry.
posted by Daniel @ Friday, August 08, 2008
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