Interconnection between different internet based VoIP providers

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timbo

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#4920 9-Sep-2005 08:50

There seem to be an increasing number of internet based VoIP providers (Skype being the best known, Google and MS recently) but I wonder how or if they will interconnect? Surely if they want to really challenge the power of existing telco's they will need to make it easy for users on their different networks to call each other.

The problem seems to be that they use a range of protocols, some open and some proprietary. Is it in their interest to interconnect with each other or are they still buidling their own customer bases?

freitasm

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#19874 9-Sep-2005 09:13

I think, like you suggest, they are growing their captive customer base. Like in the cellular world, people don't mind that there are two dominant standards and they known they can talk to each other.

In the future the VoIP providers will talk between them by offering interchange gateways, like Jabber does with software, and basically people will call between the different ones using phone numbers or the ENUM standard.

However we must remember that VoIP on computing devices will probably not be as promeminent as VoIP on handsets. There are still much more mobile phones than computers in the world, and the next wave of VoIP will be on cellular phones and landlines (via cable/DSL, like Vonage for example).

People will be used to habe IM, voice and presence in the same mobile device then...

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sbiddle

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#19907 10-Sep-2005 07:18

The problem with many of the providers such as Skype is that the protocol is proprietory. SIP on the other hand is a a standard and can be implimented by anybody. There are large numbers of SIP providers that are interconnected so you can call people easily.

Use Skype on the other hand and nobody can call you unless they have Skype. This is exactly how they want it.