By silicon.com, 23 October 2003 17:15
It seems there will always be times when speaking on a mobile phone is fraught with cries of "You're breaking up..." Even with advances, most notably brought around 10 years ago with digital infrastructure and then other tweaks, connections can be less than perfect.
Do we care? Yes, occasionally. However, most of the time we realise the value of a mobile phone is in something very obvious - its mobility. That may change somewhat. We may end up valuing its usefulness as a payment device, a locator, a remote control for various functions and many other applications.
But our bet is that mobility will still head the list for some time to come.
This all means that research out today pointing to the shortcomings of voice calls over mobiles is a little redundant. Yes, we'd like the quality to be crystal clear every time. (And doubtless we'll hear from network operators who say that it is, if only we'd try them.) But it's not essential.
Similarly, when people say voice over IP (VoIP) can be worse than traditional circuit-switched calling they often fail consider the plus points - cheapness and integration with other applications. (And VoIP is often indistinguishable from other calls anyhow now.)
You see, horses for courses - and quality isn't always paramount.
Of course one area that could see a great explosion of VoIP calling is broadband. News today that BT is bundling access with wireless - it calls it BT Broadband Traveller - could give this trend a little more impetus.
A laptop user with a 'soft phone' - a headset and the necessary software - could easily conduct voice calls when at home or at a number of hotspots now. And the price? Practically nothing.
BT isn't a great fan of losing its voice revenues and mobile operators would rather we use their cellular connections when sitting at a Wi-Fi enabled café than a laptop. But then that won't be a huge concern.
Another prediction: voice calls - over fixed lines and mobiles - will stay healthy for some time. Even though minutes will continue to fall, revenue from broadband and related services will take up the slack for telcos. For mobile operators, read mobile data and related services.
The substitution will take time but it is happening.
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1. Digital Evangelist
MoVOiP isn't this the Bluephone project that BT Retail said it was going to pilot using Norwood Systems software platform?
As for hotspot users and VOiP, in the States earlier this month I saw a number of people using headsets in hotspots to talk either on Skypipe or IM. Looking at the number of downloads over the past month I am sure that we will see the same thing happen in the UK.
When I bought my Sony Vaio one of the software packages was Callserve which I made use of when at Telecoms03. I think that the rise of WiFi is going to see next year as a take off year for SIP based telephony (and not just because we are producing a report on this area of VOiP).
The real issue is such technology is not genuine mobile telephony BUT such technologies will force the Mobile Networks to develop better data services and improve the Quality of Service. The Microsoft + Oracle + Vodaphone announcement is just the start of a number of deals from MNOs looking to protect revenues IMHO.